to liquidate my investments as they were for a house deposit?

[StartingAgain33]

I have around £33.5k of my £53k savings for a house deposit in a Stocks and Shares ISA with Moneyfarm (on a relatively low risk level - 2 out of 5), with about £9.5k in an AJ Bell Lifetime ISA and a smaller chunk into Moneybox.

I have lost all interest apart from £200 in Moneyfarm now, have lost about £400 out of my investments in AJ Bell (split between a cautious account and a balanced account), and have lost £400 of my Moneybox investments (11% of the total amount, which is now £3.5k).

Given I was planning on this being my house deposit this year, I am not keen to lose any more. Would you advise disinvesting now, to protect it? I'm tempted to disinvest all accounts apart from Moneybox, where I don't want to lock in an 11% loss. Maybe I could just leave this as a longer term chunk.

Also worth saying I may well not buy a house this year, due to potential market instability and loss to income (I'm freelance). But I just have no idea at the moment!

What would you do?

I wouldn't sell them if I could avoid it. That way you're guaranteeing that you'll lose the money, because you're selling at a low point.

Obviously we don't know if they'll go any lower, but as you say you may not buy this year due to all the instability and potential loss of income, so in that case, the best thing to do will probably be sit tight, don't sell any investments and cut back all your expenses as much as possible so you can bank some cash (if possible, or just keep the wolf from the door) to tide you over a rough patch.

I don’t think anyone can tell you the “right” thing to do, but I agree that selling now could just crystallise your loss. For the future, remember that short term savings shouldn’t be in stocks and shares unless you are prepared to bear a loss.

Things will get slightly worse across the board short term, but if you can hold out for 2-3 years, you should see them start to pick up again.

Just as @SlipperyLizard says.