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

@Happygirl79 it's only been invested since January - literally finalised a week or so before corona virus was first mentioned

@BananaBang
I would definitely leave it where it is. The 'loss' is only a real loss if you take the money out
Markets recover over the ling term
If you take the money back I feel its very possible you will regret it later on
Added to the fact that you will get zero% interest in a bank savings account right now where the value will be eaten away by inflation

OP, is it St James Place by any chance?
I'm glad to hear you have cash savings as well.
Please do go and read up on basics of investing, it will put your mind at rest and also help you to understand what the "wealth managers" are saying.
As others have said, if you don't need to call on the money immediately there is no need to panic.
To be honest it's not rocket science and certain "professionals" make money out of making it sound too difficult for the layperson to understand, or it would put them out of a job.

God no - absolutely NOT James palace!

You're right though - a little read up in the basics is probably going to help me.

Phew, glad its not St James

you just have to stop looking at it.
Honest

I know I know. I've just felt all on edge and unsettled. Not like me at all. I appreciate the comments and advice

And yes, it's a decent company. My parents invested with them for nearly two decades, i am happy with them as a company. But just aaghhhh

I too can't help but keep checking every day. I can't break a habit of 20+ years!
Our portfolio is down by more than 20% and I think it will go even lower before it bottoms out!

For DH and me, these falls in value are more concerning than they were during the 2007/8 financial crisis, the dotcom crash, the gulf war and all the others - because this time we are in a weaker position financially. DH is already retired and I am about to retire next month.

My SIPP is fully invested and has lost a lot of its value. I had been undecided as to whether to put it into drawdown or to just take chunks out when needed. I've decided to do neither! Fortunately, I have a few thousand in a cash ISA, so I will be using that to bridge the 4 year gap until I get my state pension.

Previously, we were earning and so could take advantage of the lower prices by drip feeding money back into the market. Buying low helped our portfolio to recover from the 2008 crisis (although it took several years). Now that we have no income, it will be more difficult. Oh well.

Our portfolio is down by more than 20%...DH is already retired and I am about to retire next month

Whoever gave you financial advice has given you bad advice. The market as a whole is down around 20%. If your portfolio is down 20% that suggests you are in 100% stocks. An incredibly risky situation to be in when you are just about retirement age. You should have had a maximum of 40% of your portfolio in the stock market, if not less.

Whoever gave you financial advice has given you bad advice

I've never had any financial advice! I've always just done my own thing.

@80smum

You have not done anything wrong. The moves we have experienced are to be expected in a 60% equity portfolio. Many investors will be facing drops of 20% to 30%.

I have never seen dramatic moves like we had last week. In a single day markets gapped down 10%. A single day! I bought a couple of stocks.

I also reset my portfolio with more small caps to take advantage of any sudden rebound up and increased my cash to 10% if this is not the bottom which it could be. Who knows.

The moment we have rumours of a Covid vaccine or anti viral then the buyers will rush back. But they will be too late.

I have never seen a market like this in my life. A ten year momentum driven tight channel market hit a huge vertical brick wall and ran down it like a waterfall. It was more interesting than the corona virus which will probably weaken and evaporate away anyway.

You should have held sufficient cash reserves for income over a two year bear market and bottom buying.

We are currently at an inflexion point. An upward surge would not surprise me around this level. Sometimes you have to look up !

We have a 25 year endowment policy from our first mortgage which ends in December. It was originally to cover £25k of our mortgage and was likely to make more than that we were told. In reality we will be lucky to get back what we've put in but I guess we are best just sitting tight at this stage??

I think we've decided to pull with a loss of .... lots

I KNOW the advice is to stay invested. And I understand why because I'm not stupid. But my mental health can't take the stress of it - and I'm not a person who has any mental health issues as a rule! I actually don't care about losing 40k odd by pulling out - over 300k is still loads and loads of money and I appreciate we are fortunate to have it

I do NEED this money though. Not yet but in time I need it. I don't want to see it drop under 300k and then more and more. I don't want to wait the best part of god knows how many years to see it come back up and by metaphorically stashing 300k under the mattress it will remove what is proving to be a huge stress for me - and to reiterate, I'm not a person given to shaky mental health.

I had a helluva a year last year - both my parents died within 8 weeks of each other, they weren't particularly elderly and it was quite the shock. So meh - losing some cash here is manageable for me mentally compared to that.

I know the history of the markets show peaks and troughs and it always comes back up. But we've not had this stupid pandemic before, nothing like it really.

Just a fucker all round really isn't it?

And now I've swung back the other way and thinking I need to stay invested

FFS

I read the motley fool and other decent publications. My fear is that corona virus is unprecedented and that it'll all go bang and we will lose the lot but then, everyone says hold nerve and just stay invested

if it is any consolation my fund has crashed about 25%. Just as well we are no longer forced to take pensions at a certain age!

it's not nice but I can weather it and now's the time to get informed about what to do when things recover. I think (and I am no expert) that firm action and stability improve markets, it is when governments do the headless chicken thing or Boris just handwaves and says 'it'll be fine' that they plummet.

northender
As I said to another Endowment person up thread
the Terminal bonus is the most valuable part.
If you pull even a day early you lose it.
Sit tight and wait and see.

Thanks listening, that's why we've kept hold of it so we'll continue & cross our fingers

Motley fool are rubbish for advice... Sorry but as someone with a solid background in banking and finance you really should take solid advice before taking such a loss when you don't even need the money right now
It's madness entirely because you are panicking
Hold your nerve and save your money

No one should sell and people that want too shouldn't invest in this way.
I'm holding and trying to buy.

Banana we had never experienced anything until its experienced.

Sadly self employed people are being given no choice but to sell their investments
as to claim government COVID support you have to have less than £16,000 in savings

Sadly self employed people are being given no choice but to sell their investments
as to claim government COVID support you have to have less than £16,000 in savings

Well they are idiots if they didn't have enough contingency in cash for at least a year, I know I do. It's very foolish to have all your savings in investments, more so if you are self employed.

Mine is split about 60/40 investments to cash, and I can live on the cash I have for three years (by when I will be 55 and can live three more years on cash in my pension). Especially now there is nothing to spend money on except food.

Can you please post a link to the government advice about the £16k? If this is true I'll just put a load of money in the pension.

VanGogh
Its the standard UC limit that has always been in place.

And why should people not be allowed to hold part of their 'retirement pot' in ISAs and other savings products other than a pension scheme ?

If you have three years of cash, that is nice for you.
I do not.

For people whose income has dropped 90% in the last few months, such cushions do not exist.

Its the standard UC limit that has always been in place.

Right. So, not "COVID" support as you referred to it, just UC then.
The govt said they were changing some of the rules. I've not yet caught up on what they all are.

And why should people not be allowed to hold part of their 'retirement pot' in ISAs and other savings products other than a pension scheme ?

Who said they couldn't? I certainly didn't. Hold your retirement pot wherever you like. I'm not sure I understand what you are referring to.

If you have three years of cash, that is nice for you.
I do not.

Yet you are saying you have to sell investments to survive?

My point is, before investing, everyone should make sure they have a sensible cash buffer or emergency fund. It's insane to put money in investments that you might need to live on if there is an emergency.

I only happen to have three years of cash right now, for some specific reasons, but I tend to ensure I keep at least one years outgoings in cash. If all I had was enough savings to cover one years outgoings (or less) it would most certainly not be tied up in the stock market.

And I am self employed, which is why I ensure I keep a decent emergency fund. I'm fully aware that many people do not have the means to save, but this is an investment thread. If you've got no savings, or not enough to last you a decent amount of time, investing is not for you.

There's a real chance inflation will skyrocket once this is over, so I wouldn't convert stocks to cash at this point in time.