Pension fund performance - do you monitor yours, how is it doing, do you actively change it?

mejinks said:
I know this is going to sound morbid, but with my health issues I will be very pleased if I see 50. My salary is such that I can't afford a pension even if I wanted to, heck, I can barely afford food and am looking at getting a 2nd and maybe a third job. I will literally work until I die and I've made my peace with that. My family are disabled so will be looked after by the state I hope, although I am trying to save to give them something. My funeral l is already taken care of and I am aiming to pass debt free.
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Most pension providers have a provision for ill-health, giving you access to your pot when you can no longer work.

I realise that doesn't help with the food situation, but it does make a pension relevant to people with health issues.
 
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Seems to be more noise appearing lately about the US stock market being overheated and a crash possible in the next 6 months to 2 years.

I might switch some of my portfolio back into bond funds, currently in 100% equities.

Anyone else considering their allocation?
 
danlightbulb said:
Seems to be more noise appearing lately about the US stock market being overheated and a crash possible in the next 6 months to 2 years.

I might switch some of my portfolio back into bond funds, currently in 100% equities.

Anyone else considering their allocation?
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It's always overheated and it's always on the verge of crashing.
If you're worried then the sensible option used to be an 80/20 or for the more risk averse 60/40 portfolio. No idea if that is still the current thinking. Depends on age and your attitude to risk.
DYOR. Not financial advice etc etc.
 
200sols said:
No.

And with the way debt is across the world I wouldn't jump into any sort of duration with bonds either. Stick with short dated bonds if you do it.
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Yeah definitely short duration gilts, not sure I even have an available fund in my scheme to specifically target that.

If these funds are delivering 5-6% that is much higher than historically, and potentially quite favourable against 6-8% being delivered by a diverse set of equities.
 
Uther said:
If you're worried then the sensible option used to be an 80/20 or for the more risk averse 60/40 portfolio. No idea if that is still the current thinking. Depends on age and your attitude to risk.
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It did used to be accepted wisdom for an 80/20 or 60/40 portfolio. That doesn't seem to be the case now with a view that 100% equities for as long as possible is the best option if you still have 10+ years to retirement, and even potentially during retirement for a large proportion of the portfolio.

However this view seemed to gain traction amongst influencers over the past 3 years, and now their narrative is switching back to bonds. Obviously they make their money by always touting some new approach so you have to be really careful.

The other danger is that a global weighted index is highly weighted to the US. It could be an option to de-weight the US somewhat in your portfolio, reflecting that would be the market to crash hardest if tech stocks dump.
 
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danlightbulb said:
It did used to be accepted wisdom for an 80/20 or 60/40 portfolio. That doesn't seem to be the case now with a view that 100% equities for as long as possible is the best option if you still have 10+ years to retirement, and even potentially during retirement for a large proportion of the portfolio.

However this view seemed to gain traction amongst influencers over the past 3 years, and now their narrative is switching back to bonds. Obviously they make their money by always touting some new approach so you have to be really careful.

The other danger is that a global weighted index is highly weighted to the US. It could be an option to de-weight the US somewhat in your portfolio, reflecting that would be the market to crash hardest if tech stocks dump.
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That's the trouble, there is just so much 'noise' out there on the internet now it's difficult. Unfortunately the money has been in the US for a good while, it served me well but that is obviously no guarantee going forward. Apart from a couple of years 'cash' in a MM fund most of my pension is in a low cost global fund ( I retired early) so still pretty heavily weighted to equities.
 
You probably aren't going to time the market successfully. I wouldn't sell unless I believed a market was structurally broken and likely to stagnate long term. For example, the UK. If there is a crash I would try to buy into it as much as I can.
 
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danlightbulb said:
Yeah definitely short duration gilts, not sure I even have an available fund in my scheme to specifically target that.

If these funds are delivering 5-6% that is much higher than historically, and potentially quite favourable against 6-8% being delivered by a diverse set of equities.
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It'll depend on your circumstances. Quite favourable if you're retired or nearing retirement, not so favourable if you've got 20 years to go, thats a lot of compounding missed.
 
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Just a query, but if someone dies and they've left 30? years of pension to someone, where does the money go? Is it right for the private pension to only pay out 4 months of pension to the ones left behind? I know state pension doesn't, but I would have thought a private pension would have.
 
mejinks said:
Just a query, but if someone dies and they've left 30? years of pension to someone, where does the money go? Is it right for the private pension to only pay out 4 months of pension to the ones left behind? I know state pension doesn't, but I would have thought a private pension would have.
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Assuming DB pension. You need to look at the terms. Each is different.

I'd expect a lump sum if they die within a set time after retiring and 50% to spouse for life. But check details.
 
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mejinks said:
Just a query, but if someone dies and they've left 30? years of pension to someone, where does the money go? Is it right for the private pension to only pay out 4 months of pension to the ones left behind? I know state pension doesn't, but I would have thought a private pension would have.
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You need to find out what type of pension it was

Private (DC - defined contributions)
or
older DB (defined benefit pension)

Also was the person who passed married?
Had they already stated drawing the pension before death or were they still in the scheme or pre-retirement? (i.e not drawing the pension yet)

Some more detail and can potentially help better.
 
danlightbulb said:
Seems to be more noise appearing lately about the US stock market being overheated and a crash possible in the next 6 months to 2 years.

I might switch some of my portfolio back into bond funds, currently in 100% equities.

Anyone else considering their allocation?
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Which they have been saying for the last 2 years. In the last 2 years the S&P500 has gained nearly 60%. That would have been very expensive not to be vested during this time.

You cannot time the market, but time in the market is critical. Leave your investments in equities and accept at some point there likely will be a crash and promise yourself not to sell anything
 
Exactly, if you react to news and hearsay, the professional traders win and you lose.

There are very, very few non-professional traders who win at the game, and most of them did it for a living at the biggest banks. And they weren't trading in global funds.
 
Goverrnment funded Pension (not State Pension BTW) ... hopefully they have tinkered around reducing our benefits enough now and will honour what little is left in it???
 
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