Any way to try and claw back my bad investment choices/don't laugh please.

Marcon

ProDave said:

Please name all the funds, otherwise nobody can really comment.

Plenty of people have already commented - and answered the actual question asked!

mebu60

We've all been there. Bailed out of USA due to toxic combination of Trump and Covid. I had been overweight and done really well out of USA up until then which also influenced my decision. Alternate investments have done ok but would be £10s of k better off had I stuck with USA. Them's the breaks kid :-(   

MK62

It's the nature of investing that something will always have done better than whatever you are invested in, but without hindsight, there's no way to know beforehand. My failure to switch all my investments into the best performing funds of the last year has no doubt "cost" me thousands too, if you look at it that way,  but there's no point worrying about it now......it's history.

SouthCoastBoy

Every investor makes choices, nobody is going to get it 100% perfect. Personally I have invested in funds that have outperformed the market others have underperformed, its the reality of investing.

Voyager2002

hachiman_2 said:

I have a private personal pension and 2.5 years ago I was only in Fund A. I then looked at the last couple of years performance of alternative funds and although Fund A was good, Funds B, C and D had done better. So I switch 75% of my investment out of Fund A and put 25% each into Funds B,C and D. Putin invaded the Ukraine in early 2022 and there has been a cost of living crisis so all funds dropped by up to a 3rd each. I decided to wait and see if things would get better, but 2 years later the value of Fund A is now higher than when I switched out of it 2.5 years ago, and Funds B,C and D are lower. I’ve worked it out that if I had not did the switch out of Fund A back then, my pension would be worth £43,000 more than it is now. I hold my hands up and say it was me. I was unadvised and did this all myself. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but back then I thought I was making a good decision. This is on my mind constantly and is messing with my head.

I know this was my own doing and I and I am responsible, but is there any legal or financial services action that I can take against my pension company for myself not understanding the risks, the level of loss etc? Not blaming the company at all, but I am just asking is there is any way or do I just learn from the experience? Much appreciated.

You were definitely scammed! You should claim back every penny from Mr. Putin.

Just do a search on Facebook, and I am sure that you will find a law firm willing to fight for your compensation. And no need to worry about the modest up-front charge...

NlghtOwl

I look back at my previous investment, chasing performance such as health sector when it was hot, mining as well as Woodford and even dabbled in spread betting. Luckily only a couple of thousand lost but it got me interested in personal finance and reading, listening to sensible podcasts so I now save regularly and invest in broad index funds which have doubled in value over the last 10 years. I look back at previous mistakes as learning opportunities on a path to success not failures. Good luck

Kim_13

Having it all in one fund probably isn't the best move, so try not to beat yourself up. With that said, if you are going to do switches with no advice and by the sounds of it, little experience of investing, you should only do so with a small proportion to begin with. You presumably picked Fund A originally because it was suited to your risk appetite but do not be tempted to switch back while it is high. When a fund falls you could view it as on sale and go back in then, with the hope that you gain when it recovers.

The provider have done their bit by warning on their website/in the product literature that funds can go down as well as up and that past performance is no guarantee of future returns. They don't have the money to give you as they did as you asked and the money was lost (or not gained) in the funds selected. For every investor who thinks that a provider should be required to do more, there is another thinking that they should have the right to do as they wish with their own money without being mandated to follow what an IFA says is the best course of action, or without being asked so many questions by their bank etc.

cloud_dog

This is the sort of situation where having an investment strategy you are comfortable with, and selecting fund(s) that support the strategy, would really help stop an individual from chasing those pesky unicorns.

OldScientist

There will always be funds that are doing better (and worse) than the ones you are invested in, but looking at past performance is not a guide to future performance. So performance chasing is, as you have found, not a wise approach. To take a rather extreme example, gold has increased in price by about 17% over the last year (and has annualised trailing returns over the last 5 years of about 13%) - on the basis of past performance, it looks a rather good bet, but moving your entire retirement portfolio into gold is unlikely to be a sensible decision.

For a passive investment approach, selecting two funds (or possibly a single fund*)
1) a global index equity index fund
2) a global bond fund or a UK gilt fund
in proportions you can live with is a sound start. Typical proportions for someone 10 or more years away from retirement might be 70% to 90% equities with the remaining portion in bonds. These funds will produce a return close to the market average, but the overall value can still fluctuate, sometimes wildly, from year to year. There are arguments on this forum (and elsewhere) over the exact proportions and the exact composition/duration of the fixed income (particularly with hindsight over the last two years or so), but that is details.

* Many pension platforms also offer single funds that combine equities and bonds either in fixed proportions (e.g. Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 maintains a constant 80% allocation to equities) or in changing proportions depending on how far away from retirement you are (often known as target date or lifestyle funds).

Sea_Shell

On the face of it, diversifying away from 1 fund to 4 was probably the right thing to do, in principle.

It just hasn't turned out to be optimal...yet!!

Who knows where all 4 funds will be in the future.