Just checked my pension fund...

[Queenofscones]

Oh hell. It's lost just over 10% in a year. A year in which inflation is 10%.

I'd been hoping to retire this year, when I'm 63. Looks like that plan will need to be put on hold...

Mine lost 17% in a year. I despair.

Pensions are long term investments and financial advisors always say that these kind of ups and downs are expected. I think it's only if you're going to retire in the next couple of years that this 'down' will impact you.

I know. I would have have been £12k better off if it had just been in a savings account — although it would still have been worth less because of inflation. I've worked so hard to try and ensure that I'm secure in retirement. I've been prudent all my life and now whichever way I turn I'm haemorrhaging money. Looks as if the only way to guarantee a comfortable retirement is to keep on working.

What funds are you invested in? Do they derisk as you move closer to your nominated retirement date? Is your retirement date accurate on your plan?

Markets are volatile at the moment but if you are invested in funds with appropriate glide paths im surprised you’re losing as much as 10%.

I thought I was appropriately invested. Hence the shock. I have an appointment with an IFA next week. Let's hope she can sort me out.

Oh that is horrible.

This is what can be so stressful about money - if you get lucky it is all fine, if not it can be problematic and through no fault of your own.

I hope your IFA can help!

Don't panic! Markets are taking a hammering at the moment, because of anxiety around Credit Suisse (just saved by a merger with UBS) and Deutsche Bank, plus SVB in the US. They will re-bound. I agree with @mintbiscuit though that you should review your investments, thinking about derisking and about how you will use them once you are retired. Equities (shares) outperform all other types of investment over time, but you never want to be in position where you have to sell them at the wrong moment.

Unless you need to withdraw the lot in order to retire (thus crystallising your loss) there may well still be a way to retire on time. Speak to an IFA. That you can now withdraw just what you need to live on gives a lot more flexibility, and will allow whatever is left in your pot a chance to recover when markets eventually rebound.

Now that you don't have to buy an annuity the total value of your fund when you retire is much less of a problem. Presumably you will draw down what you need and leave the rest invested?

Mine lost more than 12%. It’s now lost all of the gains since I invested in it initially. I’m 60 so there isn’t time for it to regain the losses, never mind build on it. I will have to work until state pension age just to have a pot that will have in effect not grown for more than 10 years. No point meeting my IFA, there’s nothing they can do about the state of the markets. Liz Truss is to blame.

You don't have to withdraw it when you retire - you can leave it in anticipating a recovery after the banking issues.

Pension funds typically offer the option of gradually shifting the investment from stocks type funds to low risk investments/bonds in the last five years before retirement. Have a look at yours and see what options you have

Thanks: yes, sound advice. I'm planning to draw down and need to prepare myself to take the rough with the smooth. Know the theory but the actuality is still like a bucket of cold water. Once you get over 60 and start seeing contemporaries getting sick and dying, you become really aware that you may not have another decade to go while the market sorts itself out! I'm very fortunate. Have worked solidly for more than 40 years and am naturally pretty frugal. I guess a part of me was looking forward to being able to spend more freely.

Is the Credit Suisse/ Deutsche Bank situation the start of another 2008-type scenario, do you think, or is it contained?

The markets have been fairly similar to 2008 - but I can't see it getting much worse.
Inflation is set to taper down, as are interest rate rises; so with any luck we'll be back to 'normal' (whatever that is) in a few years.

Mine has taken a proper beating, but I'm not overly worried.

Do you know how much you are planning to draw? Or do you have any other savings that can tide you over until you start drawing?
I’ve bitten the bullet this year and am constantly reminding myself that I am invested for the long term and I don’t need to start drawing from the DC funds until xx date.

I'm in a position where I will try and draw only 4% a year and I'll keep at least two years-worth of expenditure in PBs and cash. So no major worries. I know all the theory but until today I guess the reality — that you can lose serious money very easily — hadn't really sunk in. Difference between heart and head.

So sorry you've had it even worse, KissedbyFire. When you're young you have the luxury of shrugging it off and working on the basis that it'll all sort itself out in the future. When you get into your 60s it becomes more real.

The thing that worries me is that I need to continue in my current full time job until I’m 67 in order to maximise the pension that comes with it. If I’m able to do that, I will have my private pension (the one that’s lost so much), my full state pension plus the occupational pension from my current job. However, whether I can work at this level for another 7 years is a big question…

I feel your pain seem trapped in an endless cycle of crash, recover, crash with investments too. My pension fund is at exactly the same balance it was two years ago.

I'm sorry you are both having such a difficult time. There are times in life when everything goes a bit pear-shaped and I think we're hitting one of those now. With a bit of luck things will pick up, though I'm not sure with the way China and Russia are looking at each other the next decade will be a easy.

The usual safe haven to reduce risk - the bond market - is in turmoil at the moment, and has seen some of the largest losses and instability.

Ideally when you get close to retirement, you should have a pot of cash/low risk investments to draw down on to avoid drawing down on big losses.

Easy to say now I know. I've taken a hammering on my overwhelmingly North America tech large caps. Fortunately I'm mid 40s with plenty room to recover.

i've taken it out of the hands of my financial group and switch my funds over to self investment.
so so frustrated with both the ups and downs, using the market as an excuse. telling me it's long term planning (i'm 65 how much longer is long term) and paying the group monthly sums to supposibly "manage" my investment portfolio.
i have zero background in this stuff but can't see me screwing up more than the financial group has. this group is via a national bank not some side street fellows.
at the last portfolio review i was in tears telling them how unhappy and stressed i was with the up's and down's and begged them to put it all into a saving account at 4% interest. of course they laughed claimed it was not possible (as it's in a tax sheltered scheme).
1 month in and i'm holding my own. survived the usa and credit swiss 2 week window. now making gains.

As you approach retirement your funds are usually moved into what had generally always been considered to be less volatile investments such as gilts. Then along came Truss and Kami-Kwazi, and created a huge crisis in gilts.

I'm sorry OP, it appears you have been a victim of Truss. I mean, she wrecked a lot, ruined young families with mortgages as well, contributed to the general inflation spike and COL crisis. But those nearing retirement who had large proportions of pension funds in gilts were also really screwed.

Perhaps send her the bill, to pay from her £120k per annum for life, index-linked pension fund that she receives for her 44 disastrous days in office where she managed to make the country many of tens of billions of pounds poorer in the time it took a lettuce to rot.