The other shoe

[Nearly Sane]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

[Hope]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

But, then, we've just been enjoying a vibrant bull market, whereby the pensions were growing unexpectedly.

[Nearly Sane]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

But, then, we've just been enjoying a vibrant bull market, whereby the pensions were growing unexpectedly.

depends on definition of time, but the last twenty five years have had no growth.

[Nearly Sane]

Actually no, there has not been a huge market growth for anyone in the UK? Care to cite, Hope. But given that the market in the UK is now less than it was 20 years ago - tell me about what you think it is a bull market?

[jeremyp]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

But, then, we've just been enjoying a vibrant bull market, whereby the pensions were growing unexpectedly.

depends on definition of time, but the last twenty five years have had no growth.

Well my pension must have bucked the trend then.

Or perhaps you exaggerate.

[Nearly Sane]

Well my pension must have bucked the trend then.

Or perhaps you exaggerate.

Yes, indeed I did, it's twenty not twenty five years since in the UK we have had a flat stock market, and there has been growth elsewhere if one was invested
 The growth though other than in some of the other markets has been in comparison to the previous hundred years at a low level. To have the main (for the majority of UK investors) investment market flat for 20 years and currently falling will have an effect on all our pensions.

[Hope]

Actually no, there has not been a huge market growth for anyone in the UK? Care to cite, Hope. But given that the market in the UK is now less than it was 20 years ago - tell me about what you think it is a bull market?

Actually, over parts of a 25 year period, growth has been bigger than we sometimes realise.  The problem has been the massive drop in growth that resulted from the financial crash of the mid-noughties that wiped out the growth of the previous 10-15 years.  For the last year or so, the world's stock markets have been doing 'very well, thank you' based on the double-figure growth that China has been experiencing.  However, the last 7-10 days have seen a massive crash in that economy, and hence in the confidence of markets around the world, resulting in hundreds of billions of pounds'-worth of value being wiped off those markets.  Your and my pensions are heavily tied into the values of those stock markets.

[Nearly Sane]

Most of your money will be in the UK stock market which has been static for 20 years and had no significant growth in the last year. There is not a bull market in the US. The Chinese stock market has been volatile rather than a bull market in the last year.

[jeremyp]

Yes, indeed I did, it's twenty not twenty five years since in the UK we have had a flat stock market, and there has been growth elsewhere if one was invested

Pension funds do not necessarily track the stock market.  The FTSE indexes don't index much except the London Stock Exchange.

To have the main (for the majority of UK investors) investment market flat for 20 years and currently falling will have an effect on all our pensions.

Which index are you using, by the way?

[jeremyp]

Most of your money will be in the UK stock market which has been static for 20 years

No it hasn't.

I distinctly recall it crashing in 2008/9 and losing nearly half it's value and then recovering to previous levels over the next few years.  That is not static.  A good (or lucky) pension fund manager would have made a packet on that.

[Hope]

Most of your money will be in the UK stock market which has been static for 20 years and had no significant growth in the last year. There is not a bull market in the US. The Chinese stock market has been volatile rather than a bull market in the last year.

OK, if that's the case, perhaps you ought to inform the BBC's and other media outlets' financial commentators who have been pontificating on the issue in recent days.  In fact, I used the term 'bull market' because it had just been used by one of said commentators on the BBC's Radio News.

[Sassy]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

I have a pension which has been with a company for over 30 years how will that work out?

[Nearly Sane]

Anyone with a pension based on equity, it all gets worse. We have lost what was hoped for on the giant Ponzi scheme.

I have a pension which has been with a company for over 30 years how will that work out?

Difficult to say without looking at the individual risk spread and the type of pensionyou have but if it is mainly in UK equities you would have a reasonable return for the first ten years, then it would have been relatively static. At base pensions are posited on continuing growth. That is not guaranteed, and while I admit to having been somewhat   doommongering with the OP, we cannot assume that growth will continue. Further the crash of 2007, has not lead to any real changes in the banking system and much of the problems that caused that are likely to re-emerge