To wonder how long the stock market is going to be in turmoil, pension decisions

[Jud3]

So we’re in the unenviable position of being near retirement and need to make decisions.

It's a real 'nobody knows'. How long until your retirement? What have you been planning? What do you have in the various asset classes?

Nothing fancy. Various pensions with lump sums.Got 5-9 years. Was planning to clear a massive chunk off the mortgage this year with a lump sum so we can enjoy life a little in the run up to retirement whilst working to clear the remainder for retirement. I know we’re not as bad as many so not whining but I guess the enjoying life bit won’t be happening for a while yet. 😫

Then there are pension decisions themselves too .I guess just sitting tight is the best option but wondering how long that will be.

I have no idea, @Jud3 but I feel you. Was hoping to buy my first house this year, and just watched my deposit absolutely tank.

As you’re close to retirement what do you mean by decisions buying annuities? Where to invest? That sort of thing?

So sorry. Bloody Trump will be making money from all this. 😡

Trump is in for 4 years. Then he's trying to engineer a 3rd term.

He's a loose cannon and seems hell bent on destroying the world economy.

No one will be able to answer how long this will last with any degree of certainty

This. He's thrown out any vestige of logic and reason so who knows.

Gold maybe. Portable for the zombie apocalypse.

I have a smallish pension that I've just put in for as it'll serve as savings. I lost £300 on it just yesterday and I'm not prepared to lose any more. It's the only savings I have so I'm not risking it. Ds1 has lost the same amount on his smallish portfolio, which is a shame as the young need all the money they can get 😢 I'm worried that things completely crash and we end up like 2008 and then a recession.

If interest rates fall, it may help you though?

Apparently he's "Breaking it down to rebuild it"

We can only hope for an impeachment and someone sensible takes over.

We have watched our pension fund tank in real time. We have 7 years to retirement, hoping it recovers..

He's an utter twat. He couldn't build a damn Lego model. I wish someone would sort things out for all our sakes.

Do you know what your pensions are invested in? How much are you down?

5-9 years should be absolutely fine, I thought you were going to say 6 weeks!

Have you given any thought to what you'll do at retirement (drawdown v annuity)? This is probably a good spur to think this through now and plan accordingly. If you are planning to buy an annuity you should be thinking now about lifestyling (moving partly out of equities) but not selling at this moment. If you're drawing down (which is more common) you'll need to stay invested longer. You can get free advice from Pension Wise if you are 50+ - worth doing so that you are in a good place when you do come to retirement.

Is that a possibility from this? Mortgage rates falling?

As I understand it, if this kicks off a recession we'll likely see an initial drop in interest rates and then they'll rise again.

It can be handy if you want to take out a long-term fixed rate mortgage but you'd have to prepare for a big bump up once the fix runs out (if the economy recovers)

Have I got that straight in my head as you understand it, @ThatSchoolOfficeLady?

No idea. Need to start researching . One of my husbands lump sums were down £16k last week!We can sit it out but will continue to be beholden to the mortgage.

i checked mine yesterday and £40k been wiped out! bloody shocking

We have a 5 year share investment maturing later this year...every spare penny we've had has gone into it.

The projected value has dropped £11k in the last 4 weeks 🙄 We have 5 months to see what happens next and then decide whether to take the money to avoid the risk of a further drop or hold the shares and hope for some recovery before selling them.

Either way, unless there's a quick and robust recovery we won't be buying a house next year as intended.

Fucking Trump can get to fuck.

Well we've been hearing how much of a great business man he is from his supporters, so I guess this is his opportunity to shine... or not🙄

Oh don’t you worry his own personal financial advisers will be making him a fortunate out of this. They will know each day what he is going to say and what the market reactions will be.

Conventional wisdom says sit tight; don't take your lump sums until markets have recovered.

We are already retired. We dont have 'long term' for our pension funds to recover. I think it is despicable that our modest little lives can so easily be fucked over, while the grifters will continue to grift and the mega-rich will simply get richer off the back of our lost savings. Fuck Trump's game-playing and fuck everyone who voted for him - you've made our long hard-working and responsible saving lives feel utterly pointless.

If ordinary folks move what money they can out the markets and into cash and safer havens - or indeed spend rather than lose (and who can blame them) - the further ramifications will be enormous. Which is why experts will say 'sit tight and dont do anything rash'.

I dont have any advice Op, but I personally am hoping that the US is left out in the cold and markets rally/respond favourably to the responses of more grown-up governments and alternative trading alliances.

Exactly what I meant @natura

I was told that it is better to move away from stocks and into bonds as you near retirement to avoid stock market volatility. It’s not a good idea to do that at the moment though but once the market recovers