topped my pension up with a stocks and shares isa
value 31 march 2008 -885.42
value 30 sept 2008 -956.63
conts for period 1 apr 2008 to 30 sept 2008 =240.00.
so much for a early retirment , if im anything to go by theyll be a lot of wrinklys driving trucks in the future
Don’t worry, according to statistics you’ll be dead long before then 
I don t have the pleasure of worrying about a pension i dont have one !!!.
Its sad anyone should lose money on a pension most other investments are a gamble your pension shouldnt be.
ady you’ll find the shares will go back up in a couple of years time, in fact, nows the best time to be buying shares whilst their at their lowest.
Everyone panics and sells losing a fortune, but ride the storm out and you’ll see them go back up eventually.
ady1:
topped my pension up with a stocks and shares isaso much for a early retirment , if im anything to go by theyll be a lot of wrinklys driving trucks in the future
The only people who need to worry are those due to retire now or in the immediate future. If you’re a couple of years off, I’d not worry. Shares and stocks go up and down all the time. They’re only about at the same level as they were in 2001.
Ady1, take note of what DaveyDriver and Conor have posted. There is a rule with stocks and shares that all the big investors apply to their portfolios.SELL when the share price is High. BUY when the share price is LOW. No need to panic. Give it a year or so, and the Footsie will be knocking on the 6000 + mark again.
Davey Driver:
ady you’ll find the shares will go back up in a couple of years time, in fact, nows the best time to be buying shares whilst their at their lowest.Everyone panics and sells losing a fortune, but ride the storm out and you’ll see them go back up eventually.
Normally yes, but you have to look at this crisis as alot different to others…
This meltdown is hitting the typical share that a pension fund would buy(banks because they pay a really good dividend and would generally have been regarded as a rock solid share, so there are alot of pension funds that had shares in banks and now dont as the banks have collapsed(lehman bros, northern rock, iceland banks…) /bought out for nothing(morgan stanley, BOS…)
OTOH, it does mean that a pension fund can buy more shares with your money due to the prices being low which means that when they go up, they’ll make a lot more profit.
For example:
If your £20 weekly pension contribution was used to buy shares in Barclays Bank in April 2008, when they were £5 a share they’d have got just under 4 shares. If your £20 weekly contribution buys Barclays shares today, they’d buy 20.
HOWEVER when the share prices rise again towards their 8 year average price of around £6 a share, those shares you bought in April 2008 would have only made a total of £4 profit whereas the shares your contribution bought this week would have made £20 or in other words, your contribution you make this week would make 5 times as much money for your pension as the ones your contribution bought in April if you’re not retiring in the next few months.
It is also on this basis that the Government bailed out the banks in return for shares in them because when the value goes up, they’ll make a killing which is good for all of us as it means they can borrow shedloads now from the central banks to keep the UK economy running and people in jobs by investing in building (such as council houses) and expansion and in a few years time, the money will be there from the share profits to pay it back. Sadly the press seems incapable of working this out or ignore that for the sake of a sensational headline.
So as long as you’re not due to retire in the next 2 years which is historically what it takes shares to recover from a market collapse, you should actually do BETTER out of the current “crisis” than you would have if there had been no collapse.
The thing is with stocks and shares is that its all about the timing. If your pension is due to be collected in the next 6-12 months, you may do far better putting it off a year if you can. You may well end up better off than you would have done if you’d retired before the collapse.
Work until you are 80, I think the way things are going in my neck of the woods I will be lucky if I am working untill 8.00pm Friday.
That seemed pretty good adviceby Conor. Don’t forgett that shares also pay dividends. These can be used to buy more shares of those that paid the dividend. As I understand, it’s the dividends that really make buying and holding shares worth the effort…and you can hope for a share value appreciation too which is icing on the cake.
The only thing I would disagree with Conor is that if one would be retiring in 2 years…then it probably wouldn’t be wise to plough your money into shares with so little time to go before retirement…or at least not much of your savings.
I don’t want to scare anybody…but we do live in very insecure times. If we endure what Japan did and are still not out of yer…then our stock-markets maybe no higer in 20 years or so than it is now.
PS
I don’t have a pension. I really must do something. It scares the hell out of me as I definitely don’t want to be working past 65 ish.