Pension ex.USA

[agentzero]

Given what is happening in the USA now, and the likelihood of a major recession or even a depression, I would like to limit or remove my exposure to the US stock markets in one of my pensions.

This is proving a challenge. Providers either name the area North America or just throw all western countries into one sack. I don't mind investing in Canada, but I definitely don't want to invest in the USA from now until whichever time they regain sanity.

Is anybody able to do this with their current large pension provider? Or should I be transferring this private pension into my SIPP and self managing for a few years?

During the 2008 to 2012 bear market I did this with most of my pensions and managed to stop a substantial loss. Scottish Widows and Royal London pension documentation shows they went down a lot in those years, whereas I lost almost nothing of my pension. I want to avoid a repeat of this now that the USA has gone crazy.

Serious replies only. I didn't expect it to be this hard to diversify and am particularly concerned about Scottish Widows being so against diversification from the USA. They essentially make it impossible.

Any body faced similar? And if you haven't been thinking about doing the above, you probably should be.

[northernladuk]

I've been watching my pension sink through the floor not knowing what to do. Usually I panic sell, miss the bounce and buy back in for more than I sold. Im useless at investing so I decided to swallow hard and keep hold. I must admit I thought we were past the worst of it and near bottom. It's people saying what you are that gets me stressed again so I'm really not sure what to do myself TBH. Too late to sell? Just hang on now or are we at the bottom so pump whatever spare I have in to it? Not a clue. When I decide to do something I'll tell you so you can do the opposite

[woody1]

Surprised this is the case, as many providers offer a wide range of geographical/sector/thematic funds.

Do you have a link showing what funds you can invest in?

[ChimpMaster]

Look at historical movements in markets: the US will ALWAYS recover and will outperform UK by a significant majority.

[eek]

Look at historical movements in markets: the US will ALWAYS recover and will outperform UK by a significant majority.

Past Performance may not reflect future returns especially with Trump in charge...

[woody1]

When everyone is selling - buy! That's what I'm doing.

Buy and hold.

This (with certain caveats).

To some extent it depends how far off needing the money you are (how long to retirement). General advice seems to be to scale out of equities the closer you get.

It's rare to get a 10-year period where the market is lower at the end than the beginning but it does happen. If you'd bought (and held) in the late 20s or mid-60s, it would have taken 30 years to get back to breakeven.

https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow...storical-chart

With Trump at the helm, who knows. I also can't help feeling that investors may have got a bit complacent. For the past 15 years, the stock market (particularly in the US) has been pretty much a one-way bet. Every time it's gone down, it's fairly quickly recovered.

[sadkingbilly]

I moved the US part of my SIPP elsewhere when that twat got elected.
I've always been a bit germoline*, anyway.


*antiseptic.

[Dorkeaux]

NotAllThere, Woody1 and ChimpMaster are in the right of it, most good investors stay invested and don't try to time the market.
Instead they use dollar cost averaging, a fancy term for dribbling money into your investments evenly over time.

This has always worked over time, but corrections and "Black Swan" events can be unnerving.
Also, your appetite for volatility should change the closer you get to retirement.

This is my case. I'm getting close to retirement, and bailed out of all the stock markets (as much as I was able to) a week into the recent US stock market fall.
I lost a pile, but not nearly as bad as it would have been had I remained fully in.

I'm now buying back in, about 40% UK ETFs, 40% US ETFs, 20% individual stocks, mainly UK and European. Slowly…

[woody1]

I wouldn't necessarily advocate Gold, although it is a useful portfolio diversifier when combined with stocks, bonds, property etc. Even a small allocation to Bitcoin (or a proxy like MSTR, given that BTC and its derivatives can't be held in a SIPP/ISA) might serve a similar purpose.

However, what Gold is doing at the moment may be a worrying bellwether of not so good things to come.

[sadkingbilly]

When everyone is selling - buy! That's what I'm doing.

Buy and hold.

I sold half my stock (needs must, not to game the market) just after the orange Mussolini took office. 3 months later - £30000 less.

not contradictory at all.
you should be a politician .