Market Volatility or Cost of living concerns?

If you’re worried about how market volatility or cost of living challenges are impacting your finances, there is support available to help you decide on the best way to manage your money, and your savings and investments with Aberdeen. We’ve outlined some things to think about.

Before you make any decisions about your finances, we always recommend taking financial advice from a regulated financial adviser.

If you already have a financial adviser, you should discuss any change in your circumstances with them. They can reassure you and advise on the best course of action for you.

If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can find one in your area using services like www.unbiased.co.uk. Expert advice does cost money, but any charges will be fully explained to you before you commit to anything.

Whilst most investors will be familiar with the typical risk warnings that the value of investments can go down as well as up, ‘Market Volatility’ is a term used to describe when markets rise or fall suddenly and unpredictably.

In periods of volatility, it’s important to remain calm and avoid making decisions based on short-term movements that could materially impact on your longer-term financial goals and outcomes.

Particularly when markets fall suddenly, selling investments when prices are lower could result in you making a much lower return on your investments or even a loss (the value returned is lower than what you originally paid) depending on the price when the investment was first made.

Of course, everyone’s circumstances are different so to help you navigate the right outcome for your circumstances some things to consider are:

Do nothing/defer

Unless you absolutely need to access your investments to generate income now, and you can take a longer-term view of your financial goals, history shows markets tend to recover in time. Doing nothing, or at least delaying any decisions until markets stabilise, may provide you with better returns aligned to your original investment goals.

If you need to, you can pause your contributions to any of our products without any penalties. This can be for as long as you need. You can also change the amount you pay.

So, if you need to stop or reduce your contribution amount, just get in touch by calling us on 0345 279 1001(option 2)

And then when you’re ready you can contact us to restart or increase your contribution again.

Most people can only access their pension once you reach age 55.

If you are eligible, you may wish to consider taking income from your pension.

Or, if you’re already receiving pension income, one of the key benefits of pension drawdown is the ability to vary the amount you receive. You can increase or decrease the amount you receive from your pension to suit your needs and circumstances.

Your savings and investments are secure with Aberdeen, but the value of these will rise and fall with the markets.

While you can’t control how markets perform, you can control where you’re invested.

If you’re only investing in one or two types of investments, then you’re potentially exposing yourself to more risk.

Diversifying your investments – spreading your money across different types of investments - can help reduce the amount of risk you take, and potentially give more consistent returns, with fewer and less severe ups and downs.

We can’t give advice. However, if you would like to discuss how to do this, please call us on 0800 027 4675.

There is a heightened risk of fraud and financial crime at the moment. Find out more in our article on 'Financial crime – how we can support you with prevention'

We always recommend getting expert advice from a financial adviser, but there are lots of other organisations that can help.