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

I know a lot of people here think they need millions to retire, but it seems a lot of people will struggle to even afford the 'minimum' lifestyle in retirement...
news.sky.com

Pension problem: Fears of retirement crisis resurface as number saving enough collapses

Sky's Ian King casts his eyes over an annual report on the state of pension savings and says those closest to retirement would appear to have the most to worry about after a series of blunders by successive governments and other headwinds.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
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Uther said:
I know a lot of people here think they need millions to retire, but it seems a lot of people will struggle to even afford the 'minimum' lifestyle in retirement...
news.sky.com

Pension problem: Fears of retirement crisis resurface as number saving enough collapses

Sky's Ian King casts his eyes over an annual report on the state of pension savings and says those closest to retirement would appear to have the most to worry about after a series of blunders by successive governments and other headwinds.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
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Some review should look into what pensions are actually invested in. Many are in low performing assets saddled with high fees which seem to be the default option, people need educating on this and not from the likes of scottish widows who often like to saddle their customers with said low performance high fee products.
 
200sols said:
Some review should look into what pensions are actually invested in. Many are in low performing assets saddled with high fees which seem to be the default option, people need educating on this and not from the likes of scottish widows who often like to saddle their customers with said low performance high fee products.
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Totally agree, some of the fees these funds charge are ridiculous, especially for the poor returns. If the government start forcing pension firms to start investing heavily into the UK that is an issue too.
I think a lot of people just pay the minimum 5% in and don't give it much more thought. That'll come back to bite them in a few decades, when it's either too late or it would take a huge amount of effort to catch up.
 
Uther said:
If the government start forcing pension firms to start investing heavily into the UK that is an issue too.
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This is quite concerning. I hope they give more detail on their thinking about this soon. Hopefully it's optional and they incentivise to make it happen rather than dictating.
 
Uther said:
Totally agree, some of the fees these funds charge are ridiculous, especially for the poor returns. If the government start forcing pension firms to start investing heavily into the UK that is an issue too.
I think a lot of people just pay the minimum 5% in and don't give it much more thought. That'll come back to bite them in a few decades, when it's either too late or it would take a huge amount of effort to catch up.
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Literally just off the phone with a prospective client.

Worried about lack of performance in his pension.....

Investing monthly for last 15 years...... 98% invested in property funds/ 2% in with profits funds :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Also a £9.50 per month "admin" fee, as well as 1% fund costs....

First time he's bothered to look at the statements since he setup the pension 15 years ago....
 
Uther said:
Totally agree, some of the fees these funds charge are ridiculous, especially for the poor returns. If the government start forcing pension firms to start investing heavily into the UK that is an issue too.
I think a lot of people just pay the minimum 5% in and don't give it much more thought. That'll come back to bite them in a few decades, when it's either too late or it would take a huge amount of effort to catch up.
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Well if the pension money returns to UK markets then performance may change. The UK markets thing gets a bit overdone anyway, sure its not US levels of growth but I'd argue even a basic FTSE100 tracker has beaten most of these garbage pension funds.
 
booyaka said:
First time he's bothered to look at the statements since he setup the pension 15 years ago....
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Hows he doing?

Uther said:
I know a lot of people here think they need millions to retire, but it seems a lot of people will struggle to even afford the 'minimum' lifestyle in retirement...
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I would say there are going to be a huge number of people over the next 50 years who are going to be ****** in retirement. Their pensions won't afford them a decent retirement or they won't have much of a pension. A large number of people will still be renting because they could never afford to buy. More and more people have absolutely no savings and are living at the edge of their means constantly. The population is getting unhealthier by the year and healthcare costs are rising every year even ignoring the increased demand.

Its a recipe for disaster.
 
EvilRob said:
Many won't of course but anyone remotely financially savvy will know or have chosen how they are invested.
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The aim of course should be to improve outcomes for the majority and we know most people are not interested/dont understand/think investing is a scam and want to impale shareholders. We need to change attitudes to see better results.

With DB pensions it didn't matter that people didn't understand, much different now with DC pensions.
 
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Thought I'd have a little peek at what's what with my "play pension". This is my mongrel of random bits and bobs I accumulated over a period of about 12 years, through temping, various employers, etc. I had one employer who I worked for for two years who has no idea about my pension so I'm regarding that as lost. The rest is all combined in to this pot, the last actual contribution was in 2020. The fund was always hovering with no noticeable improvement for four years, until I started doing some actual research in January and decided to opt in to a different plan on Pensionbee. I opted in to the "Fossil Fuel Free Plan" which is also one of their riskier plans. As you can see from the graph, that was a very well timed move as my pot has jumped 30% in the last few months:

pgu3giR.png


Of course it could all collapse like a house of cards overnight but I'm seriously considering changing my current pension plan to something riskier too.


TL;DR - do your homework, if you're running on default settings, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
 
Oh my god the sky is falling in! BUY BUY BUY! :D

Not gonna lie, that bottom line hurts this morning but I've been through this a couple of times now and was rewarded after the COVID crash.
 
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I bought quite a bit of S&P 500 recently that is now down 6% from buy price. Brilliant timing :)
I may buy some more but it will have to be through a general investment account.
 
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Narj said:
Oh my god the sky is falling in! BUY BUY BUY! :D

Not gonna lie, that bottom line hurts this morning but I've been through this a couple of times now and was rewarded after the COVID crash.
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My pension is well down, I've kinda enjoyed watching it go up and up every week lol like you it hit rock bottom during COVID but since I carried on paying in all the way through I was surprised how much it appreciated out of the other side
 
200sols said:
Unlike the covid era, an unprecedented pump of liquidity won't be happening this time.
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I wouldn't be surprised if things are somewhat more subdued from here. It's all felt very overheated lately but saying that, a lot of stocks have still performed very poorly since COVID.

I'd felt a bit uneasy for a while so had put (probably too much by conventional wisdom) cash aside. What I can't ignore now is an opportunity to bring my cost average down. Don't need the money for 10 years and this hasn't disrupted my plans very much so I'm not panicking yet. :)
 
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Don't panic lads and lasses.
Economic fundamentals are still sound especially in the US. I wouldn't try and be too smart buying into the dip just yet especially with the overvalued tech stocks. their valuations are not based on economic fundamentals.

I spent a bit of time at the weekend modelling my retirement plans and was pleasantly surprised as to what might be possible in terms of packing up work early. Need it verified by an IFA at some point but I might just be into my last two years of full time work. (provided the markets don't meltdown)
 
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