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

Everyone with stock/equity based investments is in the same boat, of course, but I guess they won't know if they don't have access to view their account online.

Was half thinking of retiring early - maybe 5 years time - but perhaps forget that one now as my pension pot is down by a 6-figure sum compared to 1st March.

Oh well.

I was hoping to retire in three years' time, but I might not be able to. If the value of the pot decreases then I might have to stay in employment for longer. Or I could take a hit, which I don't fancy doing. It depends on by how much the pot will have reduced...
I have got increasingly worse health problems though.
Thoughts, anyone?

@potter5 the only thing is it's impossible to pick the right time to switch - look how much stocks have risen over last 3 days. If you pulled out into cash 3 days ago you'd have lost around 20% compared to a FTSE tracker.

And then which cash fund to move to? USD funds were doing far, far better than GBP a week back. Not sure now, though.

Thanks Once that is very helpful advice.

If worried speak to an IFA!

Wauden We're in much the same boat. We have already spoken to our FA and he says, as others here have. Try not to worry. "They" will be buying many more stocks at low prices... your pot will bounce back, even if you have to work an additional few years.

Deep breath... ignore it for now!

@Wauden if your pension is in equities/stocks then it will have taken a big hit, hence the usual idea is to gradually move everything into cash funds before retirement so there's less risk.

No idea what the best course of action would be now. I think we have to ride it out and see where things end up.

The stockmarket has bombed. But it's highly likely to rise again within 3 years so try not to worry too much.

I’d be more worried about the endowment (if it is vital to your financial planning that you pay off the mortgage at that particular point in time). 3 months is probably not long enough for it to recover (though obviously nobody knows for sure).

With regard to the CTF, there’s time for it to improve, and it isn’t your main income.

I have (modest) investments too, and honestly have hardly given it a thought. When people are dying and friends are losing their livelihoods overnight I’m saving my worrying for them.

I could only put my daughter in stocks and shares.
It will recover, hopefully.

We have 100k (not boasting at all) in 2 investment funds. It was in there until DS1 is 18 so he could fulfil his dream of becoming a pilot. Its through my bank so every time I log onto my bank I can see whats in there. Before all this started it was up to 119k...when I looked yesterday it was 80K.

I realise it's a complete first world problem and we are lucky to have that money at all. But we went through 5 years of hell (DH worked/lived abroad for 5 years) to get it and it feels like it was all for nothing.

It'll go back up, I don't even want to look at my pension. I know DPs has dropped by 70k in the last few weeks.
But what can you so, we're told to out money in these things, save for retirement, put money in pensions. I see why some people just keep money under the bed or buy property instead...

We are lucky enough to have some money in a stocks and shares ISA. The value of it will have gone down massively this month - though we haven't looked to see how much.

My view is that we were privileged to have it in the first place and if it goes down in value that's just one of the terrible side effects of this virus that every single family will have to deal with.

Don't get me wrong, we worked bloody hard for our money and we are careful with our spending. But I have two friends who had useless husbands (one alcoholic, one abusive) who have brought up their families single handedly, worked their arses off cleaning other people's homes,and don't have a penny to bless themselves with. I'm always conscious I am lucky enough to have skills that bring me a good income and to have married a loyal, hard working decent bloke. It could so easily have gone the other way!

As people say, investments may recover. But if they don't. we will just be in the same boat as everyone else. Your son will be no worse off than all the other students whose parents didn't save for them. it's hard for you because you did a lovely thing getting him ready for uni. So it's very upsetting for you. But you'll probably feel better once you get your head around the fact that this virus is going to change everything for all of us and somehow we will all muddle though. And those of us who were lucky enough to be financially secure at the start have a higher chance of muddling through than those who were already on the breadline.

It’s rubbish, isn’t it. If it makes you feel any better, DH isn't far from retirement. His “pot” which has been in situ for some 43 yrs, is fucked.

My pensions gone down by about 70k. I'm not worried it will go back up and I'm not close to retirement (I feel for those who are!)

Three years is enough that highly likely to recover its value

The worst time to get rid of shares is when the market is down - it could get worse but the longer term prospect is it will go back up

Yes @RB68 and in fact it's probably a good time to invest more - not that I'm in any way advising anyone to do so.

No investment in the stock market is 'safe' - didn't you read the small print? Investments can go down as well as up, they are a long-term investment...

All investments and funds have gone down recently. They will come back up. You don't need the money for a couple of years. Hang fire.

Having read through these, the people who would be worst hit with this would be those with DC coming up to 18- the same ones who already have had their A levels cancelled - as these CTFs change to ISAs at that age.

Although most seem to have been changed to ISAs already.

I don't have masses in investments and have been watching them since this began. I moved my dd ctf into a childs investment isa little over a month ago so I could manage it myself and put money in. I waited too long to get investment savvy as dc is now 10. However, I invested what she did have two days ago after holding back a while. Invested it when stocks were down 15%- 20% and already gained quite well.

I have been doing the same with my own investments, it is scary to see them go down so much but it is worth putting in now for the long term if you can afford it. One of them was a loss before this started though .

DS has gone down too but you can’t stress too much about it, it’s the risk of doing these things which we were lucky to be able to.

I daren't look at my pension fund at the moment, know it has gone down an awful lot and I'm due to retire in just under 2 years time. The stock market always goes back up again in time. If it takes more than 2 years I'll just carry on working until it does.

in 2008 a lot of investments lost up to a quarter of their value if you were lucky it was only 10% BUT up till last year the value increased well above the invested figure & made a decent profit compared to isa - (pension related experience) this will pass, you have 3 years. isa value will be negligible virtually no interest

Don’t sell now, OP! As others have noted, you haven’t lost anything until you sell.

My ISA and SIPP investments have been battered, but so what? I’m not selling any time soon. I’m buying actually: shares are on a 30% off sale.

So in theory, would now be a good time to increase investment in savings that are linked to shares, because you get more shares for your money? I know it’s still risky.