Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Child trust find gone down 1.5K

117 replies

Orangeblossom78 · 26/03/2020 20:19

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

OP posts:
lastqueenofscotland · 27/03/2020 10:27

I have a stocks and shares isa that took a pummelling last week but has started to creep up following the $2 trillion pumped into the DW earlier this week

Saddler · 27/03/2020 10:28

It's how investments work. I've lost about £100k out my pension. I'll keep paying in buy more units for less and it will bounce back. Instead of having it when he's 18 he'd be wise to reinvest it anyway

bridgetreilly · 27/03/2020 10:28

Your endowment is in a much more precarious position than the trust fund, OP. I think you should expect that it won't cover the mortgage and be prepared to have to refinance in some way.

helgahelga · 27/03/2020 10:37

@Orangeblossom78 This is happening to everyone. Some people are seeing their pensions dropping (from an expected £250K when they hit pension age in 5 to 8 years,) to £125K.

It doesn't make the blow any harder though, so I am sorry. Flowers

Sit tight though. Martin Lewis said the other day,to leave it, and try not to worry, as it will probably rise again in the coming few years.

Hope it's all OK for you. Smile

Jaxhog · 27/03/2020 10:37

Yes, I can well believe it's gone down that much. I've lost over 10k from my investments in the last 3 weeks. Money that was supposed to help fund my retirement.

suggestionsplease1 · 27/03/2020 10:39

It's very tempting to invest in stocks and shares now but the difficulty is predicting when the market will bottom out, if it hasn't already. Has it got further to go down or have the markets factored in all the risk already and it's mainly going to be an uphill trend from now on.

I think you'd have to have a very high tolerance for risk and be prepared to lose whatever you invest - as the saying goes - don't catch a falling knife. However I'm sure some people will be lucky and be quids in after investing right now.

timeisnotaline · 27/03/2020 10:45

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.
Some perspective op. It’s upsetting, but the people worst hit are absolutely the less well off retirees who need these funds now for living costs and can not wait for them to regain value, so have just had their funds for everyday life cut and no ability to recover.

helgahelga · 27/03/2020 10:46

This coronavirus fucking up the economy is really hitting people who have money/investments etc...

But I have spoken to a few people who are basically quite poor, rent their house, have no savings, earn some £20K for the whole household, and have no investments.

They said nothing's changing for them. They are poor anyway, so they have nothing to lose. They have been written off with 80% of their wages paid, and say they can cope with that as it's still a decent amount.

Still, a shame for those losing it, but many of the poor, who have no assets and no property are no worse off. One woman I know (a neighbour) said yesterday that the people with too much money in the form of investments and stocks and shares and endowments etc, can get a taste of what it's like to be poor now. Which I thought was a little mean.

helgahelga · 27/03/2020 10:46

This neighbour also seemed a little gleeful that people with huge pension pots (to come) were almost certainly not going to get as much now.

Original poster
Orangeblossom78 · 27/03/2020 10:54

It's poor form to be shaming people who have saved carefully for worrying about this. We aren't wealthy by any means.

OP posts:
VegetableMunge · 27/03/2020 10:59

How often do you get to see the value? I have a stocks and shares ISA that I can check daily and have been doing. It had lost about 10% of value at lowest but it's now recovered another 3% of that. Was all very low risk so that might be why it didn't do as badly as some funds, though it was at something like 5% growth over the past two years back in January! It's possible yours is back on the up again now.

shinyredbus · 27/03/2020 11:03

Of course it’s gone down that much - the markets have been obliterated - I mean absolutely annihilated. It will go down more before it gets better. Sorry op.

Original poster
Orangeblossom78 · 27/03/2020 11:29

We got the value letter as it was the DCs birthday last week

OP posts:
Iamthewombat · 27/03/2020 11:33

Yes, you need a reasonable tolerance for risk to buy shares now. I’m still doing it, though.

At the height of the financial crisis in 2009 the FTSE 100 was at 3,500. It’s at 5,500 now. It was above 7,500 earlier this year. I’m in it for the long term. The ‘falling knife’ thing only really applies to individual shares. Buy trackers now and you mitigate the risk.

Chewbecca · 27/03/2020 11:37

vegetablemunge DS’s is linked to my own current account so shows on my internet banking app, I see it every time I log in there!

VegetableMunge · 27/03/2020 11:47

Has yours just gone straight down in trajectory Chewbacca or have you seen any jumping around?

OP if there's a way you can see it more often, it might be worth doing. It's so difficult because if you put the money in cash, with the current rates, it's absolutely guaranteed to decline in value in real terms but under normal circumstances at least, you can have some idea about that and factor it into your plans.

TiddleTaddleTat · 27/03/2020 11:51

Probably a good time to buy more, to be fair

Shopgirl1 · 27/03/2020 18:29

You don’t know it’s a good time to buy more, markets very volatile still and have not bottomed out, Investment Managers managing multi asset class portfolios are not buying back into equities yet, hard to get out and in at the right time, but still looking very uncertain currently.

Chewbecca · 27/03/2020 19:48

I don’t watch it closely enough to notice the smaller gains and losses. I know it was ‘over 7’ and now it is barely 6.

Wauden · 27/03/2020 22:30

@CuriousaboutSamphire Thanks, you are right. Don't fancy working a few years longer than when I had hoped to retire, ie 3 years before state pension age.
Sit tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride Shock

Choo975 · 27/03/2020 23:16

Cautious type funds are down about 14% on average in the last 5 weeks.

Medium risk funds around 18%

Higher end around 20-35%

It’s not been a good ride.

My pension has gone down 26% and lost £22k

MintyMabel · 27/03/2020 23:30

These sorted of accounts should be viewed over the long term. You are still likely to make more than the average savings account over the term of the investment.

Rumboogie · 28/03/2020 00:46

The stocks will go back up in time.

Unfortunately for us we were in the process of liquidating a will trust ( which has to pay out its capital now) and this lost £15, 000. nothing we can do.

Holdingmybreath · 28/03/2020 01:05

My DD was in the first year if the ctfs so coming up to 17 this year.We tried to move it to a Junior ISA after Christmas but the bank messed something up so it didn't happen.We can only hold tight now and see where we are when it matures next year.

HauntedHats · 28/03/2020 02:05

"More people can imagine the end of humanity before they can imagine the end of Capitalism" ...