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Retirement

Matt Hopkins said:
This is not advice or taking the piss but if your workmate is in the same scheme as you and has showed you how much his has gone up why don't you put your money in the same fund as him especially if you have 30 years to go?
Don't feel stupid, I never joined my first employers DB scheme so missed out on 8 years DB, now that's stupid 👍
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His are highest risk (7/7 risk factor) so was worried I'd have missed the peak and they could drop down. All a bit clueless with it all if I'm honest
 

EiffelTower said:
Hi all

I have had a bit of an awakening over the last few days and am extremely worried I have completely screwed myself over.

Years ago when I started in my current place I picked a couple of low risk investments on Aviva and didn't think much of it. I pay the max percentage in and get a decent contribution from my employer but have had literally zero growth in that time. It is effectively within £200 of what I have ever paid in. Naively I always thought everyone was in the same boat especially over the last six years since covid, wars, cost of living etc. Only when I mentioned this in passing to someone I work with were they incredulous about it and got up their pension pot to show me about £10,000 of growth (in a genuine way, certainly not meant as a brag)

Just not sure where to go from here. I'd say half my pension pot has been added over the last 5 years, How do I get it into a fund that is going to work for me on this basis? I don't know where to start naively. I have read mixed things on funds, mixed things on using an advisor which takes 1.5% a year but does very little. Have I totally fucked myself over?

For context I have approx 30 odd years working ahead of me. Feel incredibly stupid to have assumed all along this was the norm as I am actually quite on top of my pension and have paid in the max percentage despite being under a cost of living crisis for a long time in a bit to actually retire at a normal age once older. Have I fucked myself right up?
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Is there no default fund that changes investments as you get nearer retirement age normally at your age they would be high risk with the risk lowering to nil as you near retirement
 
EiffelTower said:
His are highest risk (7/7 risk factor) so was worried I'd have missed the peak and they could drop down. All a bit clueless with it all if I'm honest
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Risk in the next 2-3 years, certainly. Risk over 20 years, never in the history of the stock market.
Things can always change, but if they do be assured we'll all be in that very same boat!

Have a chat with an AI tool too, they can explain things better than me.
 
EiffelTower said:
His are highest risk (7/7 risk factor) so was worried I'd have missed the peak and they could drop down. All a bit clueless with it all if I'm honest
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Don't be too hard on yourself, it can be a minefield. IMO with your timescale as mentioned above you could go for a global equity fund, take the long term view and don't think about if you've missed the peak, I assure you that you haven't. And if markets fall sharply, eg Covid, ignore it and keep investing. The media is not your friend!
 
EiffelTower said:
Is there any specific funds you would put in to get that 8%? Don't want specifics but just a common one everyone goes to. Would you diversify? Would you speak to someone professionally? Can Aviva help if I call them? I assume it is in their interets for me to have a pot that grows but do they advise on this type of stuff

Sorry for all the q's mate - feel like I've massively fucked up
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What worked for me was to setup direct debits and to try to ignore market fluctuations. Over the long term you can laugh maniacally when stock markets tumble.

It’s all about risk and reward.
 
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Depending on income and that Eiffel you sound young enough for it to be no big deal, put it in high risk and don’t give up and then wait for the compounding to kick in. When it does the growth makes the early years worthwhile. It’s a good feeling when the growth is more than you’re contributing.
 
EiffelTower said:
Hi all

I have had a bit of an awakening over the last few days and am extremely worried I have completely screwed myself over.

Years ago when I started in my current place I picked a couple of low risk investments on Aviva and didn't think much of it. I pay the max percentage in and get a decent contribution from my employer but have had literally zero growth in that time. It is effectively within £200 of what I have ever paid in. Naively I always thought everyone was in the same boat especially over the last six years since covid, wars, cost of living etc. Only when I mentioned this in passing to someone I work with were they incredulous about it and got up their pension pot to show me about £10,000 of growth (in a genuine way, certainly not meant as a brag)

Just not sure where to go from here. I'd say half my pension pot has been added over the last 5 years, How do I get it into a fund that is going to work for me on this basis? I don't know where to start naively. I have read mixed things on funds, mixed things on using an advisor which takes 1.5% a year but does very little. Have I totally fucked myself over?

For context I have approx 30 odd years working ahead of me. Feel incredibly stupid to have assumed all along this was the norm as I am actually quite on top of my pension and have paid in the max percentage despite being under a cost of living crisis for a long time in a bit to actually retire at a normal age once older. Have I fucked myself right up?
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You have plenty of time to put things right. I wouldn’t worry about paying 1.5% to a FA if he’s making you good money.
 
Thanks for all your advice. Just spoke to Aviva and I basically have two options.

- Go my own way ie speak to a financial adviser at a cost (not sure if this is a one off or an end game percentage)
- Join the Aviva Lifestyle programme which apparently you are automatically enrolled in and I must have declined 10 years ago. This manages risk based on retirement age as well.

I'm guessing the second option would be the safer choice of fairly routine growth where as option one could be the one if I wanted to see bigger gains but obviously the risk element. Does anyone have any experiences of the Aviva Lifestyle programme? I wouldn't say I'm risk averse but I wouldn't turn my nose up at the Aviva programme finding me decent growth each year without much worry
 
Do you have a login for the Aviva website? I can log in and view all available funds along with their history for the last 5/10 years. I can also view which funds I'm currently invested in and change them around.

It's not the easiest website to navigate but there's a lot of information on there
 
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Is this them? Massive UK bias in there. As @PTR said I'd be looking to see if there was some sort of global fund you could pick.
 
kladum said:
Do you have a login for the Aviva website? I can log in and view all available funds along with their history for the last 5/10 years. I can also view which funds I'm currently invested in and change them around.

It's not the easiest website to navigate but there's a lot of information on there
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Yeah, I've just logged in and have 106 funds to select from
Matt Hopkins said:
You must be logged on to see external links
Is this them? Massive UK bias in there. As @PTR said I'd be looking to see if there was some sort of global fund you could pick.
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Yeah, this is it.

14 funds with Global in the name that have been around for more than 3 years - would it be beneficial for me to post them here or should I be taking them to a financial adviser?

An example of some of them

Av MyM BlackRock (60:40) Global Equity Index Tracker - this one appears about 3 times with different splits - have done very well in recent years by the looks
Av MyM Legal & General (PMC) Global Real Estate Equity Index
Av MyM HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index
Av MyM BlackRock (10:80:10) Currency Hedged Global Eq (Aq C) (seems to have flown in recent years this one)
Av MyM BNY Mellon Long-Term Global Equity

Thanks again for all your help
 
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EiffelTower said:
Yeah, I've just logged in and have 106 funds to select from

Yeah, this is it.

14 funds with Global in the name that have been around for more than 3 years - would it be beneficial for me to post them here or should I be taking them to a financial adviser?

An example of some of them

Av MyM BlackRock (60:40) Global Equity Index Tracker - this one appears about 3 times with different splits - have done very well in recent years by the looks
Av MyM Legal & General (PMC) Global Real Estate Equity Index
Av MyM HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index
Av MyM BlackRock (10:80:10) Currency Hedged Global Eq (Aq C) (seems to have flown in recent years this one)
Av MyM BNY Mellon Long-Term Global Equity

Thanks again for all your help
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Again, please don't think this is financial advice.
But I asked ChatGPT what Aviva fund is more like the Vanguard Lifestrategy 100 Equities that I'm using, and it said this:

You must be logged on to see external links

I assume it'll be on your list, but you'll see the point I think.
 
PTR said:
Again, please don't think this is financial advice.
But I asked ChatGPT what Aviva fund is more like the Vanguard Lifestrategy 100 Equities that I'm using, and it said this:

You must be logged on to see external links

I assume it'll be on your list, but you'll see the point I think.
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Thanks again and don't worry won't take anything as financial advice - just really appreciate the help as feels like a bit of minefield and financial advice looks fairly costly. That one is not on the list unfortunately.

Av MyM BlackRock Consensus - is but not quite the same. Looks to have done quite well in recent years though.

One more q if I could - would you be happy putting 100% of your pension into one fund or would you always split across a couple?
 
EiffelTower said:
Thanks again and don't worry won't take anything as financial advice - just really appreciate the help as feels like a bit of minefield and financial advice looks fairly costly. That one is not on the list unfortunately.

Av MyM BlackRock Consensus - is but not quite the same. Looks to have done quite well in recent years though.

One more q if I could - would you be happy putting 100% of your pension into one fund or would you always split across a couple?
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It's less about the number of funds, more about what's held in them, eg if you held 2 global equity funds you'd more or less be duplicating the same shares within each. For all funds there will be a factsheet that shows you where in the world it's invested, types of industry and the top 10 holdings.
 
Matt Hopkins said:
What are the different splits on the Global equity index trackers?
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Av MyM BlackRock (60:40) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (50:50) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (40:60) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (30:70) Currency Hdgd Global Equity Tracker

All up between 18% and 23% over the last year and at the 6-8% mark previous year, 12-19% year before then at a minimal loss year before that
 
EiffelTower said:
Av MyM BlackRock (60:40) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (50:50) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (40:60) Global Equity Index Tracker
Av MyM BlackRock (30:70) Currency Hdgd Global Equity Tracker

All up between 18% and 23% over the last year and at the 6-8% mark previous year, 12-19% year before then at a minimal loss year before that
Click to expand...
If I had 30 years to go I wouldn't choose any of them. I'd be looking for a bog standard global tracker and just leave it in there for 20 years, then have a look. Not advice mind.
EiffelTower said:
Av MyM BlackRock Consensus - is but not quite the same. Looks to have done quite well in recent years though.
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Quick look at that one seems to be 70:30 split at the minute
 
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