Isa investments

[pvr]

Meanwhile, all my pension contributions since 2008 are "lost" as my pensionfund is the same value as it was then ...

 

[buzyg]

Meanwhile, all my pension contributions since 2008 are "lost" as my pensionfund is the same value as it was then ...

You can still buy a house in much of Cornwall for the same as it cost in 2008, despite what right move try and push. Tis all relative. :wink:

 

[clarker63]

Meanwhile, all my pension contributions since 2008 are "lost" as my pensionfund is the same value as it was then

ouch, that's not good news. That does worry me too that the next 10 years will effectively be the same for me as I approach retirement. Deciding where to put your money is a difficult choice at the moment.

 

[pvr]

It is a sobering thought that I would have been better off putting 10 years of contributions in a box, at least I would still have it now rather than nothing to show for it.

 

[buzyg]

Meanwhile, all my pension contributions since 2008 are "lost" as my pensionfund is the same value as it was then

ouch, that's not good news. That does worry me too that the next 10 years will effectively be the same for me as I approach retirement. Deciding where to put your money is a difficult choice at the moment.

No easy safe solution to that one. Our Chief engineer retired just after Covid hit. His pension, I understand, was indeed effected, as a result of the market falls and nothing much he could do to correct the situation.

 

[pvr]

Did he have to take it? I thought you could delay it until you were ready for it.

 

[john-e89]

I just put 50k into premium bonds....you never know.... :roll: and the rest goes into property. Like others have said I don’t do stocks and shares, perhaps that’s a mistake but it’s a bit of a minefield and my thinking is bricks and mortar always come good if you buy wisely.

 

[john-e89]

Regarding pensions I was able to cash my private one in even though I’m not old enough when I was on the oxygen as it was making the square root of zero, lots of tax paid.....don’t get me started on paying tax on a private pension.... :x and used it to buy another couple of houses for rentals, it barely made me anything in reality so it was a no brainer.

 

[buzyg]

Did he have to take it? I thought you could delay it until you were ready for it.

I don't know all the details. He needed to retire as his health had taken a down turn and he had been working part time for 18 months prior. I think the tricky bit was how much he ploughed straight into Annuities to provide income and how much he could take as cash and stuff under a pillow.

 

[ferrelscent]

If you had checked the value in the middle of March you would probably have been down 30% plus.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but at least there has been some recovery.

An actuary once told me that stock prices can only go up over the longer term unless we are headed to the end of the world. I guess you need to decide how long you want to invest for and if you think COVID-19 is the end of the world.

 

[ferrelscent]

Yes I agree with the above, as I also put mine is to Premium Bonds as interest rates are crap (so total waste of time) and will never trust shares or unit trusts again as I lost some savings in the 1987 although it wasn’t a lot of money it was to me at the time as I had just got married and had very little spare money.

If you still has that 1987 money invested now it would be worth 5 times as much, even after COVID.

But...it might not have been..., you never know what's round the corner !