Royal Mail AVC with Scottish Widows -Flex Plan / Money4 LIfe Plan

pumi63

Hi all ,
I am banging my head against a wall because i cannot get any help or advice regarding the best funds to invest in , out of 7 offered . RM only tell you what the funds are but no more !
There is next to nothing on the web too .

I have been in this scheme for 5 years now invested in 3 funds ; balanced , cautious and growth and various ratio of investment up to max. 100% .
I decided three weeks ago to invest 100% in the Growth fund but to my shock the fund has lost more money than i invested !

Would any kind souls provide me with some advice regarding investments in the better performing funds that would at least get me some income in my retired life instead of little or nothing of what i am putting in .

I figure i got another 7 years left before i retire so a fund that may perform better than sticking it under the mattress.

Thank you ,

Pum

QrizB

Royal Mail are legally prohibited from offering you (or anyone else) investment advice.

What do you plan to do with your pension funds when you retire? Are you intending to buy an annuity, to leave the funds invested and draw it down over a number of years, or are you planning to take it all in cash and go to Vegas for a wild weekend?

Your plans will help you determine the best investment choice.

dunstonh

I am banging my head against a wall because i cannot get any help or advice regarding the best funds to invest in , out of 7 offered . RM only tell you what the funds are but no more !

Royal Mail delivers the mail.  Sometimes even to the right address!    It doesn't provide advice.  Hence why they are not giving you advice.  To give advice, they would need to become regulated in that area and they don't appear to have any inclination to change their business model.  Especially as they cannot even get their own business model right.

I decided three weeks ago to invest 100% in the Growth fund but to my shock the fund has lost more money than i invested !

An economic cycle is around 15 years and you are looking at it over three weeks.   It is a three week period where markets have fallen and yet you are shocked that your investments have fallen over three weeks when the markets fell.....        Your value will fall when markets go down and your value will rise when markets go up.   So, don't be shocked when your value goes down when markets go down.

Would any kind souls provide me with some advice regarding investments in the better performing funds that would at least get me some income in my retired life instead of little or nothing of what i am putting in .

The better performing funds will also have greater losses during negative periods.    

peterg1965

If you want advice, you will need to find a financial advisor (preferably in dependant) to give you that advice - at a cost.

I am sure that RM pension provider will also point you towards someone who can provide regulated advice to you, have you read the website?

xylophone

Have you read

https://www.royalmailpensionplan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/mkg06165_royal_mail_guide_avc_v2.1_sp_1-1.pdf

Albermarle

I figure i got another 7 years left before i retire so a fund that may perform better than sticking it under the mattress.

We would all like to know with certainty what investment funds will perform well in future, but unfortunately seeing into the future is a rather specialised skill !

With investments you take a risk that they will go down, in the hope that they will go up. In the long term this is successful most of the time.

If you want certainty you may wish to look at if you can keep your pension money ( or some of it) in cash. It depends on what cash funds your pension offers. Some are paying 5% at the moment. So this would bring you some certainty but almost inevitably will mean less growth in the long run.