Investment advice

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johnthebusdriver
johnthebusdriver Posts: 2 Newbie
in Savings & investments
Hello everyone I'm new to this site also I'm not particularly money savvy so please be gentle with me.

Around three years ago my wife and I invested approx 80K in a medium risk portfolio spread out over several items. First year it made about 6K profit, year 2 and it made around 4K profit, however this last year it has dropped 10K so effectively back to square one.

I'm fully aware that investments can go down as well as up, however with the Brexit uncertainty and general downturn in the world economy I'm just wondering is it worthwhile taking my money out and putting it under the bed so to speak until things start to get a bit brighter, or ask my advisor to move it into a low risk portfolio or just stick with and hope for the best, seeing my advisor next week so just wanted to get other opinions off people far more knowledgable than I am.
Problem is with all the uncertainty at the moment its difficult knowing what to do and probably no right or wrong answer.

Thanks for reading and hopefully giving any kind of help.

Comments

  • AlanP_2
    AlanP_2 Posts: 3,252 Forumite
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    Unless your investments are 100% UK then Brexit uncertainty won't be impacting a great deal, as it isn't affecting the likes of Amazon or Netflix for example.

    US - China trade row is probably having a larger global impact on investment returns.

    What are the investments you have?

    DunstonH, an IFA who posts on here, referenced a 16% drop between Oct and Dec 2018 so on your 90k that would have been 14.4k. You could make a valid case that being in a medium risk portfolio has served you well.

    In general things have ticked upwards since the new year so some of that has been recovered already.

    What time points are you looking at to do your comparisons, moving just a few weeks would probably give you different results.

    Is you adviser an INDEPENDENT Financial Adviser? They should be able to talk you through what has happened with your specific investments but if you put a list up you will get some thoughts I am sure.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,371 Forumite
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    however with the Brexit uncertainty and general downturn in the world economy I'm just wondering is it worthwhile taking my money out and putting it under the bed so to speak until things start to get a bit brighter,

    What makes you think Brexit is going to be a major issue? (clue- it's not)
    What about all the other far more important things going on?
    And when those things are resolved, what about all the other things that we dont currently know about? There is always something going on.

    You say you knew investments go down as well as up. Yet at the first drop, you are talking about crystallising your loss and taking the money out. So, if you knew it would go down at times, why are you now worrying about it after it has had one of those negative periods?

    An economic cycle is around 10 years. In that 10 year period, you will get good years, nothing years and negative years. You never know the order. You will have multiple negative periods but usually more positive periods. You average out the ups and downs.

    If you keep taking the money out or moving down the risk profile after every loss period, you will not invest in the upside that follows. And then if you move up the risk scale again after the recovery then you have missed out on it and are ripe to suffer more losses in the next downturn. In your attempt to chase gains, you just increase the losses.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • johnthebusdriver
    johnthebusdriver Posts: 2 Newbie
    edited 12 February 2019 at 4:24PM
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    Thank you for your response, and also for the straight talking advice. I think i just panicked a bit at the size of the loss, and never having had money in the past I got a bit twitchy about losing any more, all I need to do now is persuade my lovely wife to let us keep it where it is.

    ps Im not sure if anyone knows the uncertainty about Brexit or if it will be a big issue least of all the politicians lol
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,371 Forumite
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    ps Im not sure if anyone knows the uncertainty about Brexit or if it will be a big issue least of all the politicians lol

    The UK is about 4% of the global economy. Your investments are likely to be diversified globally. The worse brexit is, the more your global assets will grow. Ironically, you may see losses if a soft brexit is agreed.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • webjaved
    webjaved Posts: 618 Forumite
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    dunstonh wrote: »
    The UK is about 4% of the global economy. Your investments are likely to be diversified globally. The worse brexit is, the more your global assets will grow. Ironically, you may see losses if a soft brexit is agreed.

    So those that have invested, should they want a worse Brexit then? :D
    Save £12k in 2019 #154 - £14,826.60/£12k
    Save £12k in 2020 #128 - £4,155.62/£10k
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,284 Forumite
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    webjaved wrote: »
    So those that have invested, should they want a worse Brexit then? :D


    Suppose there is a 'bad' Brexit: the most obvious consequence would be a decline in sterling against major currencies. So if your investments are in other countries (in companies whose shares are priced in dollars or yuan) then their value in sterling will increase. So too will the prices of most companies in the FTSE 100, since most of their earnings come from outside the UK and so would be worth more in pounds if the pound falls.
  • ColdIron
    ColdIron Posts: 9,049 Forumite
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    Johnhirsch wrote: »
    If in any kind of confusion or dilemma, better have a word with financial consulting firms such as

    Well done, you've built your post count and can now spam us with junk links
  • talexuser
    talexuser Posts: 3,499 Forumite
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    click spam
  • scalextric
    scalextric Posts: 39 Forumite
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    Is there a way to report spam?
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