Transfer pension from prev. job and changing monthly contributions to safer funds

K

kimchi

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Hi,
I'm looking for some advice. I have 2 seperate pensions from previous jobs that I am considering transferring into my current pension.
One is with Bank of Ireland Life, its called Retirement fund 2036 (6P) - its gross performance from 1 July to 31 December 2007 was -12.73% so I've lost aprox Euro1400 in that time.
Should I just cut my losses and trasfer now anyways or should I leave it and hope that it recovers in the future and then at a later time, transfer it.

The other is the Irish Life Consensues fund which is what I also pay into with my current employment.
I guess it makes sense to transfer this?
My other question is whether I should change my monthly contributions into a safer fund like Irish Life Cash fund or Irish Life Secured fund while the market is performing badly. I think this makes sense, would just like some confirmation on it. I have the option of paying varying percentages so this is another option.


Thanks for your help.
 
You need to clarify what charges apply on the existing pensions and what charges would apply on transferring them. Remember that even if you kept all three separate you should have some scope for switching to other funds within each scheme.

How long do you have to go to retirement? Unless it's a few years you should really at least consider investing in high equity content and risk/reward funds rather than cash/secure or maybe even consensus funds. Of course what's right for you depends on your specific needs and circumstances.
 
My other question is whether I should change my monthly contributions into a safer fund like Irish Life Cash fund or Irish Life Secured fund while the market is performing badly. I think this makes sense, would just like some confirmation on it.
Click to expand...

The problem with this line in logic is that it's impossible for anyone to time the markets, or call the bottom or whatever you want to call it.

So you'll never know when the correct time is to switch back into Consensus or any other fund.
 
Yeah - I meant to add to my post above that it was pointless attempting to time the market or worrying about relatively short term market fluctuations/volatility unless you are nearing retirement in which case you might want to consider gradually moving from higher to lower risk/reward funds.
 
Hi,
no unfortunately, plenty more years to go. I'm mid 30's. I only have 5 years worth of pension saved so far due to travel etc.
I'll check out what my options are within each scheme and find out the charges for transferring.

Whilst I realise its not possible to exactly time the market, isn't it going through a particularly bad patch at the moment and so what I don't understand is when this appears to be a general consensus, why wouldn't it make sense to switch my contributions to safer funds during this period and when things appear to be recovering switch again to equity or other?

Thanks for your help. Appreciated.
 
Just to add to that.
Thinking about it more, is it because if I stayed in consensus or equity and the fund is at say -2%; so when it recovers, I then make a lot more because I've bought while they were so low?
But if I was in Cash and then switched, I'm buying at the new higher rate?
 
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