Is my pension a bit rubbish?

[Simpo Two]

Mankers said:

Eh? A self selected pension is exposed to whatever you select!

If you're smart enough to run your own SIPP, yes. But most people aren't and don't. They'll have a 'balanced' mix of stuff that trundles along at medium to low risk managed by somebody else, if they have a private pension at all. Many of my friends just have a company pension, few savings and don't get beyond a deposit account.

[Slowboathome]

Gin and Ultrasonic said:

I don't think this reflects a 4% return if you are paying in monthly - some of the money will have had nearly 12 months to grow, while some has had only a month.

Unless I'm missing something, this is a key point.

[leef44]

The profile is not too dissimilar to mine other than emerging market bonds which I don't have but I had 20% cash at 4.5% interest.

I think for that period I managed something like 10+% on the developed market and about 4% on emerging market equity. Cash earned 4.5%. So averaged about 8%.

Perhaps you had negative returns for developed market bonds while emerging market may have very low positive returns.

[Steve H]

Slowboathome said:

Gin and Ultrasonic said:

I don't think this reflects a 4% return if you are paying in monthly - some of the money will have had nearly 12 months to grow, while some has had only a month.

Unless I'm missing something, this is a key point.

There was £8500 in there even at the start of the year and it still only grew by £450. 4% is probably about correct. Crap, but correct.

xeny said:

Keep in mind that judging over just a year is a bit of a lottery. Things can go in and out of fashion dramatically in successive years

Yes but if it only managed 4% on what was a pretty good year, I wouldn’t have high expectations for a poor year.

OP says 40% is invested in US stocks, that’s £2100 of his fund at the start of the year. The S&P went up by around 20% so should have contributed over £400 growth on it’s own .


I don’t know how workplace pensions are operated, are you allowed to take the benefits of the employers contributions and then transfer money out to a SIPP that you can have some control over?

[Volare]

Steve H said:

Yes but if it only managed 4% on what was a pretty good year, I wouldn’t have high expectations for a poor year.

You would have thought with modest returns its a low risk strategy shouldn't be so volatile, who knows.

Steve H said:

I don’t know how workplace pensions are operated, are you allowed to take the benefits of the employers contributions and then transfer money out to a SIPP that you can have some control over?

You lose subsequent employers contributions if you decide to transfer it out to any other pension.

[fat80b]

Volare said:

Steve H said:

I don’t know how workplace pensions are operated, are you allowed to take the benefits of the employers contributions and then transfer money out to a SIPP that you can have some control over?

You lose subsequent employers contributions if you decide to transfer it out to any other pension.

Is that true in all cases?

i.e. I thought that some workplace pensions allow you to do a partial transfer out. If yours is one of these, then you could transfer an amount out once a year or something into a SIPP and keep the workplace pension for future contributions.

If yours isn't then you might want to lean on your company to switch to a better platform - i.e. one that either a) has better fees and funds or b) allows partial transfers.....