I'm due to retire in a few years, and for the past year I've been trying to throw as much as I can into my workplace pension. Looking at how it's doing, I see I have actually lost a lot of what I've paid in.
I understand that most pension pots have lost money recently, but what I'm worried about is that so much of mine is in gilts. My company has put me in a Lifecycle fund with 70% in a 15-year gilts tracker. This was meant to be a low-risk way of protecting my money in the run-up to retirement, but in the current environment it seems to be doing more harm than good. Bonds have crashed so hard and with inflation looking like it's here to stay it doesn't seem as if they will be recovering any time soon.
At only 4 years away from retirement, I don't want to keep throwing good money after bad. I'm wondering whether I should request to switch my fund to more equities, which at least might bounce back at some point. Or maybe just substantially reduce my monthly contributions and do something else with the money I'm earning.
The sums I'm talking about are nowhere near enough to make talking to an IFA worth it, so I can't seek help there. I was wondering if anyone here was in a similar situation and if so what you were doing about it. There must be more money-savvy people than me in this situation!