If you have money in stocks and shares, have you bailed out, or are you sitting tight?

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DH and I are disagreeing a bit about this.
Over the years we have collected some savings in stocks & shares PEPS/ISAs etc. Also a few investments in (mostly) tracker-type funds (tracking e.g. the All-Share index etc).

Of course the 'value' has fallen dramatically in recent weeks.

DH keeps talking about 'getting out' i.e. selling 'before it falls any further'

but I am thinking that we might as well sit tight, because:

a) we don't have an immediate need for the cash
b) in the medium to long term there will likely be some recovery
c) once we cash them in, not only will we 'realise our losses' but we'll also lose any tax free status (e.g. on Isas etc).
d) History suggests that over 10-20 year periods tracker-type investments in the stock market always outperform savings accounts.

I think he's panicking. He thinks I'm being naive...

Is anyone having a similar discussion/ dilemma?

I think you are right
I wouldn't touch anything in a tracker type fund atm.

We're sitting tight. We do use our CGT allowances to sell about £18k worth of shares each April & put that money into other investments, but the majority of our shares are doing surprisingly well (pharmaceuticals) so will be sitting tight till the market picks up again.

I've got quite a lot of money in shares, Isa's, Investments etc. I've lost a lot recently and not sure what to do. I will sit tight. I'm very worried though as I'm over exposed. Was going to cash a % in a few weeks ago. Now I'm trying not to in the hope that it recovers.

I have some shares in RBS languishing around somehwere - they were worth at least £8k - probably worth less than £1K now so it seems pointless to bail at this point. They will recover sometime, maybe....

I agree. You HAVE to expect share-related investments to go up as well as down in the short term. Share-related savings are for the long game and if you aren't willing to see your investments 'lose' money at some point in time then you shouldn't be investing in share at all IMHO. But for now I would leave them exactly where they are.

Of course the other thing is that loads of panic selling causes a degree of volatility and on a mass level is likely to make things worse .

Oh, for the benefit of hindsight....

I agree you have to expect falls, however, the past few years have been extremely volatile culmulating in the current freefall. Not a safe place to be in. I felt like crying last night.

Sit tight if you are on it for the long term, imo.

Sit tight sit tight sit tight.

We have lots invested and it is really depressing to think how much we have 'lost'. But we are sitting tight. It will go up again.

The logical part of me says that maybe now is the time to pile more in if this is the bottom of the market?! I have been researching getting a stocks and shares ISA for the past few months and not done anything yet, but I think I will probably dive in in a month or two when things are a bit more settled.

going against the grain, we bailed .. but we bailed about a month ago and if I had to do it right now I think I might sit tight .. or maybe not

it's a gamble

I know the whole long-term argument and the 11% ROR since inception including the Wall Street Crash .. BUT I think there's a huge adjustment being made and it ain't stopped yet

if you do invest now I'd stagger it so that you are mildy protected from further falls

yeah, like hubby says- always spread the risks

We are sitting tight and taking the long term view.
We invest a proportion of dh's salary in s/s every month (he is self employed so no company pension) so at the moment we're also buying which feels really odd.

[if you've never had it...yaddah yah naive emoticon]

What is really low at the moment? My parents have some spare money for the fist time ever and they want to get shares now the market is depressed.

I can imagine my dad shouting lunch is for wimps whilst twanging stripey braces.

we have sat tight for exactly the reasons you have said.

I do not need the money for anything at the moment. So seems that it wouldn't be the right thing to do to cash things in whilst the market is this low.

However.. I am considering buying a stakeholder pension this week on the FTSE tracker.. I am hoping it isnt going to drop much further and will have recovered by the time I need a pension.

Yes I have money for dd from some old trust of FILs which I am going to bung on a FTSE tracker this week I reckon

Gabriel - if he has no experience he's be wise to invest it in some sort or tracker fund which covers a range of shares, rather than ploughing it into a single company.

DH & I were talking about the whole "which companies are likely to do OK in recession?" thing:

• food - especially low-mid range
• health - people still get sick, and the population continues to age
• possibly 'green' related, although I suspect that once budgets are tight people will switch away from more expensive ethical/ green products?

In a perverse way, a recession opens up many new opportunities for different products and services - I bet eBay will gain (people selling off stuff for cash); I predict we're already seeing the emergence of a new trend, whereby it's smart to be frugal, shun conspicuous consumption and reduce/ reuse and recycle (it's already very apparent in some parts of the UK).

I inherited several shares about three years ago (in just one company) and did nothing with them until recently, when common sense suggested spreading the risk, which I've started to do. My original shares are now well below the value that I inherited them at so I don't know whether to continue selling them and get shares in other companies that will hopefully rise more quickly, or just leave them... I think you do have to look at the long-term picture rather than thinking 'I just lost £XXXX today'.

We are having some work done on the house at the moment and will need to pay the builders soon, so I don't know which shares to sell - the ones which are doing ok (ie haven't really gained but haven't really lost either) or the ones which seem to be falling (in a 'get rid of them now before they get worse' philosophy).

Nightmare either way, would never have invested in shares if I hadn't inherited them, I still can't get my head round where the money 'goes' when the price drops!!

I think that's the problem for a lot of people who have been dawn into shares over the last decade - they are used to a bank book which showed how much money they 'have'.

Statements for stocks and shares etc are pretty meaningless in a way - the 'money' doesn't really exist unless you sell the investment, so nor does it 'go' anywhere when the value falls!

We withdrew some money a couple of months ago and stopped paying into our ISA, however the reasons had nothing to do with the economy/credit crunch.

Our circumstances have changed since we first took it out and we now need the income so it isn't worth carrying on with as we would not be leaving the oney in long enough to gain the benefitsd from a stocks and sharesd ISA.

Instead we are taking out an instant access cash ISA but leaving the remainder of the money already in our ISA in as long as we are able to.

You are right, I think.

I sold most of my shares last year to pay for a deposit on a place (not in the UK, so haven't been hammered, thank God) and have just started buying back pretty much exactly the same portfolio at a gigantic discount to what I sold it at.

If you don't need the money in the foreseeable future, I can't see any point in crystallising losses that have come in many instances from sheer panic. Your investments could (dare say almost certainly will) fall a bit further, but why give the rebound to someone else?

Ruby, was it your DH who was coming to our part of the world? Tell him we have just had the first solid week of crisp autumn weather so perhaps he should re-pack if he's thinking it's still muggy and humid.

Don't want to advise OP because don't want to feel responsible if it goes wrong, BUT
We just bought Ishares (FTSE 250), for first time in ages, about £1500 worth. We can afford to lose it if worst comes to worst, and otherwise, as long as we are happy to hold out for something like 10 years, the market looks like a Bargain to me, atm.

This whole current crisis is based on panic.