I,m loosing money--help

purch

My thought on this is;

Unless the product has a fair proportion invested in 'higher' risk areas such as Emerging Markets/Resources which has helped mitigate some of the more mainstream Equity Market losses over the previous 10 months, (and I doubt whether a product such as this does),......then a 2% drop in the previous 10 months probably mean that the Investments held within this product are the type that likely provide only a small profit when/if the mainstream equity markets 'bounce' 10% or more.

The fact that the 'advisor' only quoted a potential 4% growth after 12 months would indicate that this a Cautious managed product rather than Balanced

Dunstonh is right (as usual....yawn !!! ) go see a decent IFA and hopefully you will be steered towards a product that suits your needs and timeframes, and will get you back into positive territory

D_e_n_i_s_e

the share price will be going down im sorry to say. this is another 'correction' like the one at the start of the millenium and at the momment theres to many worrying factors in the markets, job-security, weak dollar, subprime crisis not to mention inflation. Casing point Anchor Butter 250g last year was around 82p two weeks ago in tesco it was £1.20!

House prices are dropping and will drop albeit marginally

For the time being id do what my nan always said keep your money under the matress (this to you and me - the bank!)

personally im holding off for a year or two till things have sorted out then il think of investing.

with the current market conditions property is still one of the best investment plan (with a long term view) - and only if you are planning to live in it.

dunstonh

the share price will be going down im sorry to say.

Its not a share price. Its a unit price and at this moment we dont know how the money is invested. I would place my bets on the Halifax Cautious managed fund. If it is then only a small part is invested in equities with a chunk in fixed interest. Whilst the equity side is likely to be volatile over the next few months the fixed interest side may offset that to some degree.

personally im holding off for a year or two till things have sorted out then il think of investing.

Now is probably a very good time to invest. Its certainly better than last week or last month. Whatever happens, in 5 years time, on the same equity based investment, you would be better off than someone who invested last week.

with the current market conditions property is still one of the best investment plan (with a long term view) - and only if you are planning to live in it.

Property prices are going down and there is no way to tell if it will be a short decline or a long one. If it mirrors the last property price crash then some areas took 11 years to recover (Suffolk for example). There is no way anyone can predict which asset class will be best in the future. However, the best way is to have a balanced portfolio across the asset classes, which is averaged out to match your risk profile and rebalance the portfolio periodically.

Trying to time the market and guess the best asset class is futile.

CannyJock

If it's any consolution on your 2% loss, I opened a Maxi ISA with CoFunds on the advice from a recommended IFA. Put in the full £ 7000 just before the end of the financial 06/07 financial year.

It's currently worth £5,549.

On the upside though, CoFunds have now added a facility for their investors to track their fund value online so I can get a daily update on exactly just how much money I've lost compared to sticking £ 3000 in a cash ISA and putting the rest in a savings account!

Wouldn't it be a good idea if the IFA was only paid commision on the growth of your fund rather than the current value????

Aegis

JohnDocherty wrote: »

If it's any consolution on your 2% loss, I opened a Maxi ISA with CoFunds on the advice from a recommended IFA. Put in the full £ 7000 just before the end of the financial 06/07 financial year.

It's currently worth £5,549.

Bear in mind that in the 9 months you've had the funds there have been 2 major corrections... Your IFA almost certainly couldn't see that coming, and neither could almost anyone else back then.

Out of interest, what sort of sectors are you invested in?

On the upside though, CoFunds have now added a facility for their investors to track their fund value online so I can get a daily update on exactly just how much money I've lost compared to sticking £ 3000 in a cash ISA and putting the rest in a savings account!

If you've got a reasonable portfolio, try to forget about it for 6 months or so and see what it's doing then. Looking every day will only stress you out if it's performing worse than expected!

Wouldn't it be a good idea if the IFA was only paid commision on the growth of your fund rather than the current value????

Not really, no. In the year of a large crash no IFA would make any money at all, through no fault of their own. This suggestion would effectively end the careers of pretty much every IFA, and would leave investors either doing their own research or relying on tied advisers, neither of which is a great solution.

All in all, IFAs are people like everyone else. Sometimes they make mistakes, other times they just get unlucky. If you have a decent IFA, your portfolio will very likely be ahead of cash accounts by this time in 2012.

dunstonh

If it's any consolution on your 2% loss, I opened a Maxi ISA with CoFunds on the advice from a recommended IFA. Put in the full £ 7000 just before the end of the financial 06/07 financial year.

It's currently worth £5,549.

Nothing wrong with that. I have some in the same position as do very many DIY investors. 2007 was a year where medium risk and cautious risk didnt do well. You had to be high risk to get the gains on the whole (and the gains were largely very good). Certain points of 2007 saw better times to invest than others. August was a good time to invest. April- July was a bad time.

This is why you dont invest for 6-12 months.

If you invested before the 2000/1/2 decline in the market which dropped 45% over that period which is worse than you have had. Yet still go on to nearly or actually double in the 5 year period.

Wouldn't it be a good idea if the IFA was only paid commision on the growth of your fund rather than the current value????

Cofunds pay trail. The higher the value the more the IFA gets paid, the lower the value, the less. Their interests are aligned with yours.

Perhaps you should stick to saving as it appears you dont understand investing and perhaps your IFA is at fault for thinking that you did understand it.

ric2003

D_e_n_i_s_e wrote: »

the share price will be going down im sorry to say. this is another 'correction' like the one at the start of the millenium and at the momment theres to many worrying factors in the markets, job-security, weak dollar, subprime crisis not to mention inflation. Casing point Anchor Butter 250g last year was around 82p two weeks ago in tesco it was £1.20!

House prices are dropping and will drop albeit marginally

For the time being id do what my nan always said keep your money under the matress (this to you and me - the bank!)

personally im holding off for a year or two till things have sorted out then il think of investing.

with the current market conditions property is still one of the best investment plan (with a long term view) - and only if you are planning to live in it.

thats the first time I've heard of someone using butter to predict the future of the stock market!! I like the sound of 'Casing point Anchor Butter' I've not seen that variety before.

purch

Wouldn't it be a good idea if the IFA was only paid commision on the growth of your fund rather than the current value????

......and so the ongoing confusion as to what an IFA is and what an IFA should be expected and is qualified to do continues.........

dunstonh

purch wrote: »

......and so the ongoing confusion as to what an IFA is and what an IFA should be expected and is qualified to do continues.........

It appears to some that we are meant to have crystal balls and have a gift to make money on the stockmarket even when it goes down. If one did have that ability, then they would not be an IFA.

Aegis

dunstonh wrote: »

It appears to some that we are meant to have crystal balls and have a gift to make money on the stockmarket even when it goes down. If one did have that ability, then they would not be an IFA.

They'd be living on a tropical island surrounded by gorgeous girls, sandy beaches, large mansions, speedboats and large piles of money, just because they'd be THAT rich, right?