Child trust find gone down 1.5K

[Orangeblossom78]

Since last year. It was valued at 11K last year and was told would be around 15 when they turned 18 (DS is 15, birthday hence the statement)

It now says valued at 8.5, so has gone down 1.5K since last year.

Is this due to the current situation, any others the same and will it be like to improve? Starting to wish had changed it to an ISA. It is meant to be for the DC to help towards university at 18

I heard a Radio 4 Moneybox programme about this the other day. I think it was this one. It gave some good advice to someone who's in your position.

Hasn’t it lost £2.5k? Hopefully if the markets recover, the value will too.

That is 2.5 k
If it's not needed for 3 years hopefully it will recover to an extent

Not wishing to make this worse but that’s a drop of 2.5k not 1.5k of your figures are correct. I’d seek some independent financial advice

If it’s invested in stocks and shares it will be due to the sharp stock market dip. All investments have lost value recently.
No one can predict accurately what a future value will be, it totally depends on the market. The most they can do is say if it continues to grow by x% in y years it could be worth z.
All investment carries risk, if you’d have put it into a cash isa it wouldn’t have earned very much interest.

I’m not even looking at our investments it’s too terrifying a prospect

yes 2.5K then. Argh. Have been paying into it for 15 years, a little from us and my mum, from when we were given them as babies from the gov...it was considered safe..right

It’s a shame but that’s the risk you take with stakeholder/ shares based child trust funds instead of cash savings.

What is in the fund? All equities?

It was given to us, so we didn't choose it, to be honest. It was considered safe and given by the gov.

I think all investments in stocks and shares have plummeted. It is due to the current situation and it is to be expected. But you still own the same number of shares. And if you keep investing, then you are buying them cheap right now. Eventually the markets will pick up, although it may take a long time.
Which is bad news if you need the money in the next year, but not if you can leave it alone for a few years. The longer until the fund matures the better.
I invest money for my DC too (in a low fee passive fund) although theirs is not due to mature for about 10 years. It's only around £50 a month in our case but it does add up.

My plan is to keep investing small, regular amounts over a long term period through the good and the bad and I'm not worried. I'm not trying to "win" in the short term, it's about the long term and long term the world will recover.
👍

You could choose to invest in cash or shares. We did the shares option, a bit concerned at the moment tbh, but our had still a couple of years to recover

Nothing is safe.

But if you invest it as cash you are GUARANTEED to lose money in real terms.

Yes, if it’s in equities it’s due to the current crises, markets are down overall approx 35% ytd and still very volatile.

The government didn't put it into a stocks and shares account. The ctf were given by the government but the choice where to put it was the parents. If a parent didn't open their own account by a certain date, it was put into a ctf account and these were standard ctf accounts not stocks and shares.

Ours is just the one the gov put it in, not sure. It says Stakeholder.

How much have you actually put in?
Markets are down 20/25% so yes you would expect to be down 2.5k.
You would have benefited from growth in the market over the years. You have given some of it back, the markets will recover but will take time.

Pensions will also have been decimated, so feel for those persons.

It's a long term investment, it'll go back up I expect.

I feel quite lucky to have switched my kids' CTF across to cash accounts after Christmas! That is a massive drop. Mine only had bare minimum in there.

I'd expect it to go back up in value op - a lot of experts predict a v shaped recovery, and though we don't actually know how it will go, it's likely it will be fine. Keep it in trust for them until they're 21 maybe?

Don't panic. The current situation means investments, pensions etc are down.

Pls don't say things like 'it was supposed to be safe, said the gov'. All stocks, share & investments are subject to risk.

If you don't plan on cashing, close the view and don't look at it for at least 6 months to a year. It will come back up.

Just checked ours..it's gone down by £2000. No surprise as economy fucked I guess

Yours will probably recover before you need it though it may not be as high as it would have been without this. I feel more sorry for those with investments that were expected to be used this year. They will have suffered the losses without having time to recover.

I didn't add to ours for this reason. The small print of any investment in stocks and shares states that you can get less than you paid in. it should go up again in time, but if you want secure savings best to use an ISA or normal saving account.

I have lots (to me!) of shares in the company I work for. We buy every month (b2g1f) and get an annual bonus in shares. We have to leave for at least 3 years before selling. If we wait 5 we get them tax free. So I have around 5 years worth.

The share price has dropped from £35 to £22. So I have 'lost' quite a bit. The company is strong so will (I hope!!) recover in a couple of years (and I am hopefully still here/there), in the meantime my monthly purchase is getting me more shares than before.

You have 3 years, or should hopefully recover by the time he gets it.