Help please! Should I pull my money?

[AppleBang]

We have 375k invested with a wealth management company. A good one I hasten to add! Due to what's been happening, in the 6 weeks we've had the moment invested, we've seen it dip by 10k. I expect that to be more tomorrow.

I'm personally not in the slightest bit bothered about corona virus but it appears the rest of the financial world is so... what would you do? Cut losses now and pull out the money? Or ride it out , potentially losing a lot more

It is not money I can afford to lose

Please tell me what you'd do. Thank you

If you have any spare cash, this is the time to invest.

Do not wobble! Investments are long term. And don't watch them daily. You will go mad. I have £720k invested and no doubt that has gone down in the last 2 weeks.

Out of interest, why is now the time to invest? I would have thought now is the time to put it under the bed or closest account to that! Premium bonds maybe.

Ok you've all strengthened my resolve. I will no longer wobble. Well I might but I'll try not to. I was all set to pull it today so you've helped me there.

You need to stop talking and thinking of it as a lost/lose situation. The money is performing a task, until you come to the point of seriously needing to withdraw, it's all just numbers on a screen.

Honestly, it's all a bit deal or no deal at this stage, don't get attached to a box with 10p written on it and let it have any impact on your moods.

Perhaps consider deleting the app and just checking every quarter?

It’s also hit a lot of pensions including work place pensions but should eventually correct itself is my understanding but I’m no expert.

Now is a good time to buy as the investments are 'on sale' - like buying a house during a market decline.

It is normal market volatility. Not a buying opportunity. Traders will buy as its due a short term bounce.

Thanks all

@consider good advice thanks

My financial planner had this to say, when I emailed him earlier. Much the same as a lot of you are advising ....

can understand that you are having a “wobble” with regards to the current volatility we are seeing in stock markets. Sadly, it is what happens with markets from time to time, although obviously the reasons behind this one are a little unusual. We are basically looking back at the SARS scare as the only other occasion when markets took a down turn on the back on worries about a virus pandemic. As always stock markets do not like uncertainty and that is what we have at the moment. The view from our investment team is to remain invested, and take a medium to longer term view, rather than any short term, maybe knee jerk reaction. As always the message is around the importance of the time period that monies are invested for in stock markets, rather than trying to time the selling and buying back into markets with peaks and troughs. I think that it is also worth mentioning that the investment team are of course closely monitoring all that is going on so that they can take actions across the funds that your monies are invested in as required. Also, from statistics we have seen from the teams this morning, the fund values are not falling by the same level as investment markets. This will be a result of the mixture of investments held, that is, not everything is invested in stock markets, monies are also invested in a range of lower risk, “ballast” holdings, with the aim of trying to smooth out returns.

The approach from our investment team is therefore that of staying invested and avoiding any panic. They are preparing an update on all of the current events, confirming details of our house view, which we will have later today. As soon as this is received then I will email a copy to you.

Can I hijack? For a much smaller amount, which I have in trackers? Should I be worrying more /considering switching to something more active, or is there no point? I just bought into a tracker fund this week and so I've only lost :( But there's nowhere else to put it that can even beat inflation!

I think the advice is the same, azaleanth. Don't check it daily, and keep your nerve. I've had a tracker since 2002. It went into the red straight away and stayed there for two years. It's been profitable most of the time ever since and is trending upwards.

Feel free to help shares get lower, cheaper for me to buy!!!!!

Looking like a great time to be buying shares

Looking at the graphs of FTSE over the last 20 years the drops always come back up again

I have been wanting to buy all week but holding my nerve that the markets hadn't finished reacting. I will be investing on Monday morning. My view (and I could be a random troll for all you know so this is not FCA-approved advice!) is that it's a good time to buy because markets will realise they over reacted and will then go back.

That’s what I’m thinking too. Might wait until I start see some slight creeping upwards and then hit it

@CarolineBingley ah but is there more plummeting to do? If they say it's a pandemic?

@AppleBang yeah that's this risk so why I said it's not FCA approved advice I think there is more plummeting to go. My guess is that markets will start rising next week, if a pandemic is declared then yes, markets will fall again. I think the falls this week are factoring in an element if worse case scenario forecasting.

Definitely not the time to be checking daily! Btw....Considering the markets have gone down more than 10%, to lose "just" £12k is not that bad. It could have been over £40k if it was in line with the market falls.

Yes I agree , it could be a whole lot worse so I believe from what my planner told me today that they've shifted it to a 'safe' place - or safer, rather. They also sent out their approach to all of this so that was useful.

I'm hoping this is the peak though but not holding my breath that's for sure

Look at the markets over a 5-10 year period - the 'best fit' line is steady upward trend. If you can afford to leave it invested for the next 3-5 years I would.

Balanced Investment income is around 40% dividends and 60% capital gains.
Dividends come from holding on to shares
Gains come from buying and selling
BUT
market fluctuations are caused by these who are buying and selling
if you hold your shares they are irrelevant

FWIW Warren Buffett buys and holds
and its made him one of the richest men in the world

Yes it's a five year thing for us really with the option to take some out each year. We are trying to walk the fine line of having it grow whilst at the same time spending some of it. We want to enjoy it. I'd ideally like to reach 95 and drop down dead with 20 pence left

Thanks @tribpot. I’ll try to ignore it!

Sit tight and buy if you can. Warren Buffett’s best piece of advice I think is to sell when everyone else is buying and buy when everyone else is selling. It’s a simple philosophy that has made him very rich.

SORRY BUT THIS IS THE STUPIDEST IDEA

SIT TIGHT

DO NOTHING