Investments still declining

[Livvyliv18]

Are anyones investments showing signs of recovery yet ?My pension has lost a significant amount in the last 3 months and still seems to be going down.
This happened in first lockdown but then started to do really well so I know it can improve.
Im just starting to panic and unsure if I need to see a financial advisor to look at it.
Im not 55 for another 5 years so maybe I don’t need to panic just yet
Any advice /reassurance greatly appreciated

@swifty1974

It is in PB's for speed of access, (boiler, washing machine etc.,) no doubt once everything settles down when DH finally walks out the door, we may move it, but we were winning every month and it made the interest rate return better than the banks, so it was actually a sensible place to have it at the time.

@pfills you just made me check mine and it is also over 10% down now! 😭

Im a bit reluctant to comment, its very easy to upset people on here with opinions but S&S ISAs are fairly easy to get your money out of and its a good time to buy into funds as everything is basically at a discount with all the bad news. You can withdraw your money within a couple of days should you wish to....I just think £40k is a lot to have in what is essentially a lottery where your money isnt actually working for you. Youve got to be looking to beat inflation with any returns so it is difficult with short term money unless youre prepared to take massive risks.....no easy answer really....another option would be crypto....again its at a massive discount at the moment. Personally wouldnt bother with anything other than Bitcoin myself in that space but again can be a pain with banks etc

@swifty1974 I think most people like to read about differing opinions, this isn't a brexit thread.

I'm a bit more pessimistic, i think the conditions investors face haven't been seen for decades and unless Putin goes (zero sign of that) these may well last for many years.

Everyone is focusing on Stocks but the safe haven of Bonds has also gone too.

So its easy to see the attraction of PB's, i just put 30k in that i did have ear marked for S&S isa.

Yaeh but £30k now doesnt equal £30k in 12 months time because inflation is at 9%

This means your £30k will only buy you £27300 worth of stuff in 12 months time

so unless you think you will get a return of 2700 quid from your PBs youre actually losing money.....IDK really just seems like not a very good place to put £30-40k

You could probs double it if you put it into Bitcoin over the next 12 months or so
its at 17k at the minute....a month or so ago it was at 36k.....it will bounce back for sure....

Yep down 12%, it's awful but I can leave it there for 10 years if I have to

I don't think I want to put anymore money into S&S this year

It was like the holy grail before all this

Bitcoin may or may not recover, but it is absolutely mad to say it will bounce back for sure.

We have the guts £362,000 going into proper channels soon, the £40k is as I said just swift access money. We can afford to have it underperform.

Is that based on anything? Or have you done your research?

a scarce, desirable asset which has plenty of practical use cases, that has been adopted as legal tender in some countries, that many institutional investors are now seriously investing in....it will bounce back I have absolutely no doubt

Fair enough, was just trying to understand the benefits of PBs because on the face of it, it just seemed like your money could be giving you a better return elsewhere even if it wasnt beating inflation....

Why wouldn't you? Look upon it as a sale with 12% off prices.

The S&S you buy now will make it back to what they were and then some and you will be quids in.

Nobody buys a sofa from DFS during the 3 days a year there ISNT a sale on. Do they?

So true but I have a lot more money tied up in the investments

It does feel alot better when there is some growth😀

My S&S ISA is down by 14% now. It’s worrying but will wait it out.

Mine is down but my stock and shares is for when I retire in 20 plus years so waiting it out and still putting away

We put away £700 a month for the last twenty years, it may have started out slightly lower but not much, and DH's company matched it.

There were times when I really really resented it, but I am delighted with life now, so long story short it is well worth continuing to invest when the end date seems sooooooooooo far away, because all of a sudden it rolls around very very quickly.

Chill out, meditate

Think about cashflow, have enough of a buffer for your cashflow needs. If you are working and accumulating wealth then your buffer is likely smaller (3-6 months of expenses) than someone who is retired and decumulating (2 years of expenses, so they can ride out market volatility).

For those of us who are building wealth... Market Plummeting headlines should read as "Sale Now On, Stock Up While It's Cheap". Yet we don't feel it that way.

It's based on a lifetime of investing professionally and the subsequent knowledge that there are very, very few (if any) sure things when it comes too investing. This isn't a thread to debate the merits of Bitcoin, but no one should accept this person's opinion that "it will bounce back for sure". Someone who's concerned about the YTD performance of their equity portfolio simply does not have the risk tolerance to invest in Bitcoin on the basis that "it will bounce back for sure".

This is a great message, congrats to you and your DH.

Well, that depends on what you buy with your 30k...not everything is going up at 9%... and when i update this thread in 12 months time, from my Island retreat in the Maldives having won the 1m jackpot 3 times, you wont be laughing then....

Seriously, given the volatility of the markets, Ukraine, Covid China etc etc investing that 30k could se it worth 10k or 15k minus inflation in 12 months time.

I think its all down to if or when you need that 30k and attitude to risk, my profile is L to M, same as most people and i'd rather have that 30k available and still worth something, i ve too much invested atm to add to it.

Bitcoin etc is like going to the bookies, there are sound reasons why it went up when interest rates were v low and good reasons why it may not bounce back... its purely a speculative bet.

It's been a painful six months. We have an interest only mortgage backed by S&S ISAs and some of our funds and investment trusts are down 30%, particularly global funds with high exposure to US tech stocks.

I'm a big believer in the superior returns of equities over the years, but given that the FTSE has been more resilient than the Nasdaq this year, I wonder if it's time to part sell and sit out, given the outlook for inflation and interest rates.

Ironically my job is to write about investing so I feel like I'm reliving the pain every day at the moment! I've made 25-35% annual returns on my funds on average in good years.

But I'm also aware that the FTSE 100 took over 4 years to recover from the dot.com and global financial crashes and I wonder if this is going the same way.

I'm still steering clear of crypto though, it frightens me.

If you dont understand crypto it's ok to say that but please don't say bitcoin etc is like going to the bookies....

Firstly there is no etc....bitcoin is unique and completely decentralised....the rest I dont have much faith in but there is an important distinction to be made there....secondly it really isn't like going to the bookies that's just something people who dislike it and have zero knowledge say because theyve already dismissed it as trash without doing any research....it just makes you sound a bit numb....

For many people it's genuinely a good option but to dismiss it without question as a gamble is incorrect and misleading

I understand if it frightens you or you're uncomfortable with the volatility....that's fine but not the scaremongering.....

@swifty1974 Well, for someone who was worried about commenting...

Its my opinion, which people can ignore completely... i wont lose any sleep over it.
Scaremongering? thats subjective but stating as fact that Bitcoin will "bounce back for sure" is irresponsible, you don't know that and if you do, sell your house and buy bit coin.

I've just taken out a 200k remortgage and put it all in bitcoin....so yeah I'm pretty confident