Should I Give Up On S&S ISA?

TractorFactor

I always seem to be late to the party...

I invested in some S&S ISA, mainly Vanguard FTSE All World and it seemed to be okay, a bit up and down but steadily increasing at a bit more than an ISA.

Since a war started, it's all gone wrong.

The main investment has gone down by 7% (I think I've lost nearly £100) and another S&S ISA has gone down by nearly £200. Even the free £50 worth of shares I got has gone down by £3!

I get nobody has a crystal ball but I'm rapidly losing faith in S&S ISA, I have no idea why the government wants people to invest in S&S after 2027 more than cash ISAs.

Should I just leave it and wait for all this to blow over or put this down to a loss and move the ~£5000 in a normal cash ISA?

born_again

When did you take it out s they are long term investments. 5 to 10 years or longer.

Isthisforreal99

Clearly investing is not for you. But your choice is you crystallise those 'losses' or stay in it for the long term as that is what they are. Nobody has a crystal ball but given the 'noise' over US troops on the ground in Iran I think there are further losses to come in the short term.

Zippy29

I've been investing for 40 years and seen many ups and downs in the stock market. The downs can be very scary but don't lose your nerve. If you sell now then you are locking in the loss which, at the moment, is only on paper. Stock market investing is suggested for a minimum of five years and I strongly suspect that in five years time you will be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I don't think this is going to the right choice for you but there will be some people thinking is now, or some point in the not too distant future, the time to increase the money they have invested.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661795/should-i-give-up-on-s-s-isa

Probably worth re-reading some of the advice given when you raised similar concerns a few months ago, as it seems to be largely the same underlying query?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6646977/worried-about-stocks-and-shares-isa

XzavierWalnut

My private pension has dropped over £3K since the Iran war. I am not worried. You have to be able to afford to ride the wave of downs, so you can sell on the ups.

Ayr_Rage

My S&S ISA is down 9.7% from this year's high, a paper loss of £86,000 but I'm not crying into my Chateuneuf du Pape yet, in fact I think come 6th April I'll be investing another £20,000.

I've been in the market since the inception of tax free savings, you have to think long term @TractorFactor.

dunstonh

Since a war started, it's all gone wrong.

Hardly. Markets are back about 8-9% which is peanuts for equities. We are back to around Oct/Nov last year and still double digits up on this time last year with 2023, 2024 and 2025 all being double-digit growth years.

The main investment has gone down by 7% (I think I've lost nearly £100) and another S&S ISA has gone down by nearly £200. Even the free £50 worth of shares I got has gone down by £3!

As I said, peanuts. If you are unhappy after a tiny 7% loss, what are you going to be like with a 35%-50% loss (three of those have occured in the last 26 years.

What bit about investing for the long term do you seem to have missed?

I get nobody has a crystal ball but I'm rapidly losing faith in S&S ISA, I have no idea why the government wants people to invest in S&S after 2027 more than cash ISAs.

Because investments outperform cash in the majority of periods, the majority of the time. And lets be clear, on a typical 1 to 10 risk scale, you have cash at 1 and 100% equities at 10. There are a whole load of variations in between. You didn't need to jump from 1 to 10.

Should I just leave it and wait for all this to blow over or put this down to a loss and move the ~£5000 in a normal cash ISA?

You haven't stated your objectives and timescale. So, impossible to answer.

sausage_time

My longer term investments are down ~5% in March. But, they are ~10% higher than this time last year!

Dave1979

Absolutely do not sell! I am down about £3k in 3 months but it's all relative so I banged £6k in today to use up my allowance for the year. Averaging about 15% up every year over the last 6 years with growth, dividends and compounding and there have been dips and troughs in there too.

Stop checking your account everyday and stressing think 5+ years