S&S ISA or cash ISA? Help me decide pls!!

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I have around £38,500 in a S&S ISA. Been there for 2 years or so - started with £40k!! Dropped to £37,600 at one point but hasn’t really moved in months.

I could now get just over 5% on a 2yr cash isa, meaning I’d have around £42,500 in 2 yrs.

Is my S&S isa going to reach, or beat that if I leave it alone? It seems a bad time on the markets for me… will it still be sitting at £38k?

appreciate any opinions.

All depends on how long you want to invest for. Over the long term (10 years +) the S&S ISA may well give the best return but in the short term the stock market could remain volatile so the cash ISA could be a better bet for a shorter term guaranteed gain

You could put new money in a cash ISA but what you don't want to do is move money from your S&S ISA into a cash ISA because that crystallises your loss, whereas if you leave it where it is it could grow by more than the cash interest rate

Well I don’t need the money atm so I guess I should leave it to grow.
@BarbaraofSeville isn’t it better to cut one’s losses and move on rather than stagnate or possibly lose more?

What is it invested in?

Historically, over time, investments have always outperformed cash.

But investments are volatile so there will be snapshots where there is more growth in cash, which is where we are now.

If your ISA is properly diversified, it is very very unlikely to continually stagnate or lose you money.

All advice about investing is that this is what you should do with money you don't need in the short to medium term as the growth will almost certainly be better in the long term but you need a strategy to avoid accessing the money at a time when the market is performing poorly.

Have a look at Meaningful Money including the podcast. The current series is a particularly good place to start as it's taking a detailed look at the financial flow chart.

https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

@WuTangGran HSBC Global strategy conservative, so nothing exciting. Was doing ok at 7-8% until I bought in…
just need to be patient I suppose.

@BarbaraofSeville thanks for this. I suppose it’s just that that’s not my personal experience, bad timings over a 25yr period, and now the interest rates are more reasonable I’m just sick of losing in what’s traditionally been a market to increase.
I guess I’ll just have to make a decision and live with it.

All you can do is hedge your bets with a mix of cash and investments and diversify your investments.

Other thing to look at is charges. How much are HSBC charging you? There's some ultra cheap tracker funds available from places like Vanguard, which cost less to hold.

Other thing to look at is that your fund is called 'conservative'. Which suggests the risk is lower, but so the reward is likely to be.

I’m in a not too dissimilar position with 40k (20k each) invested for the first time in April 2022 and all I’ve seen is it lose money. I’m so tempted by the cash rates currently, but my husband is adamant we should hold out as it is a 5-10 year investment really. The typical advice is to hold your nerve and hopefully overall the return will be better.

Investments tend to be aimed at 5+ years, so if you need the money in the short term, cash is probably better. If this is longer term then funds tend to do better as long as you diversify or pick a good performing one.

Your fund has gained around 2% in the last year, but lost 7% the year before. It is quite weighted to bonds, which weren't performing well then. If you are investing longer term, I would look to split the money across 4-5 funds with your investment amount, to diversify.

Hi op I'm in a similar predicament except my sipp isn't doing extremely well still in 30% region. But my isa is not nor is my dc isa doing well! I'm not planning on selling.