Ave pension growth this year

[Canyonandon]

Looking at mine and DHs DC pensions. They’ve ‘grown’ by 15-18% in the last 12 months. Is that reasonable? Seems pretty great to me but I’m no expert. We each pay in as much as we can afford.

Go back 3 years, 5 year and 10 years. Then you will get a better indication of growth. 2022 was terrible in terms of performance but the last 12 months have been great - it evens itself out. With your pension investments you should look long term and maximise what you can put in. 18% p.a. in a dc pension scheme is astoundingly good- do not base any long term financial plans on this number.

@Vol1 18% was DHs ! Mine slightly less.. in the last 4-5 years they’ve gone up about 33-46%.

Nope I won’t be calculating my retirement dates on those figures but it’s interesting to see how others are doing.

I did notice that a fund in my child’s ISA has increased 90% in 6 years. What a shame there was barely any money in it! 😫

Can I ask what funds you are invested in?

@Maneattraction mostly Vanguard…
some HL random ones… I’ll have a look.

what’s your return this past year /5/10 years @Maneattraction?

2022 was bad but only really to September. Since then, ie the last two years it has been strong. What 2022 did was reverse some of the speculative gains in 2021.

What counts now is whether inflation has been beaten globally, or whether it will see-saw and perhaps return again. The markets are signalling the former. This indicates markets will accommodate higher values. I am reviewing. My returns this year have been exceptionally strong at around 32%, largely due to taking two particular stocks in 2022 which I believed and still believe are under valued. I would be delighted if they put on 10% over the next 2 years, but I will hold regardless.

15-18% is ok. I'm getting 30%+ each year (last 4) - quite selective with stocks and use Scottish widows. The other thing is fees can nibble away at it, I'm only paying 0.3%. Employee pension schemes do have their benefits.... that said, 15%+ still above inflation.

@Fescue @QuotetheRaven very very impressed with your returns! Are you in the business both of you - or just dabblers like me? The older I get the more interested i get… I’m also realising how little I actually know and that I’ve just been flaming lucky...

Do you mind sharing which funds you’re using? I also have access to some Scottish Widows pension funding.

@Canyonandon I am not an IM but work with them, both UK, US, Lux and Switzerland in a particular profession where I am part of the wider service. I also have own money in single private or public equity companies. I used to do funds and, while there are some good ones out there, I prefer to do single company investments now. I do not aim to outperform the market, just back companies that I think can deliver growth with less risk. So far outperformance has been the effect. I have 5% or so in speculative stocks where I do ride the market for a month or two. The problem I find with funds is you do not really know what you are investing in, from management costs, decision focus, right down to the underlying companies.

@Canyonandon 1 year 13.5%. 5 year 5.9 % . 10 year 5.4 %.

I opened a VG SIPP recently and I’m awaiting trfs of a few small pots into here. If you could let me know what funds you’ve used that would be great.

@Maneattraction over 4-6 years I’m doing better than you but it’s down to luck as I don’t have £ expertise like @Fescue & @QuotetheRaven.

I’m in LS 60 & 80, VG Sustainable life 60-70% & ESG developed world all cap equity & ESG developed Europe index.

target retirement 2040, 2045

ftse global all cap index

And a few others who I’ve lost small amounts with.

Very aware that I’m probably over exposed to the US tech stocks. Not sure what to do about it, it’s hard!

I would love to be braver with single stocks like @Fescue but I’m very aware of my own limitations…

I may be braver, but I may be stupid. I take probably more risk than I should. It is hard work doing the due diligence and no guarantee the effort pays off at all. Generally, I get a feel for a stock after doing the work. About time after the years put into my career. The selection is generally good, timing when to sell (which is not the same as the generally avoidable 'timing the market') is the part where I tend to let myself down. My favourite stock is Microsoft. I think its core foundation is unique.

One of my pensions has nearly trebled in 15 years. If you invest in higher risk funds it’s possible

@Ozanj That sounds like a great return…! I would have to get my spreadsheets out to see what mine have done over a longer period. Some I have moved every 2-5 years. One fund I’ve had for 18 years and whilst it’s done extremely well the provider charged hefty fees. The rest - not so much!

I could probably spend a great deal of time tracking them all. I do have an FE account somewhere, needs radical updating.

Higher risk funds is something I’ve stayed away from, but seeing as I still have several years before retirement, I may revisit this aspect, thank you Ozjani.

@Fescue you are well placed to use your knowledge - you may as well benefit.

What do you both use to track your investments?

I only use reputable trading platforms. My pensions are both workplace pensions, so I have apps to track them. I don’t download data I’ll just check all of them weekly or monthly (depending on what I’m looking at) to see how they’re doing and adjust accordingly.

Thank you. I’m using FE TRUSTNET. Seems to do the job, if a little clunkily. It also could be prettier!!

@QuotetheRaven would you be willing to say what you invest in?

Not very easy to break down but here are a couple of screen shots. I'm actually quite risk averse so go with one of the main balanced funds. I am about to start investing in an S&S ISA using vanguard and probably a 5/7 (med-high risk/return) fund like the FTSE all world index, that does pretty well (10%+ per year) but there are years where things suck, just focus on long term and keep going - the big guns like scotttish widows, Vanguard or Hargreaves - deal with billions, so won't go under and so are generally safe bets. The All World fund is 7 bln alone for instance. Watch YouTube videos to learn about what these guys offer, that's all I've done.
I always try and nudge friends/colleagues to invest well into work place pensions, so important if you want financial freedom in retirement.

The first screenshot shows a 36% return over 5 years yet the poster said it had been 30%+ annually for the last 4 years? Something doesn't tally up for a balanced fund to be doing 30% annually but a similar rate for the 5 year return? Have you mixed cumulative returns with discrete yearly ones?

Yeah I've misread it to be fair, I don't check it very much. Still - happy with the growth it's delivering.

I changed my investment on Standard Life at the end of October last year, it was in a pretty low risk fund chosen by my company and was trucking along about 4-5% so did a bit of research and switched funds and it's grown exactly 30% this year which includes my monthly deposits into the fund.