Trump to the left of us, Brexit to the right…stuck in the middle with EU

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There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding Brexit and what impact this will have on people’s investments and pensions. A question I have been asked recently by clients, is whether they should move their investments to a safer fund or stick with their current strategy. At any given time, you need to accept the value of your investment when reviewing it. What you wish it was worth is not as important as taking a cold hard look at your circumstances for how you wish to strategize your investment going forward.

There are some things I would suggest you consider before giving any sort of advice:

  •  How long do you have before you will most likely need to mature your investment?

  • How much of your money can you afford to lose?

  • How will you react if you lose a significant value of your fund? Will you cash in your investment or move to a safer option or remain committed to your fund strategy?

  • What portion of your fund/investment would you call significant?

What has this got to do with Brexit? It has everything and nothing to do with it. I would not recommend that people try to time the market in terms of getting in and out of investments. Brexit may be the most immediate danger to the stability of the market, but it won’t be the only one over the coming years. So, if a person learns to see their investment as something that will go through good and bad periods, they will improve their chances of making the right decisions at different times.

One of the important things to note, is how long you plan to invest your funds. The longer you intend on investing your money the potentially greater the risk you can afford to take. The next thing is trying to work out how comfortable you will be with these fluctuations and this will help determine how much risk you can take.

So, what will happen with Brexit? Well, nobody really knows. Perhaps it will be a “Hard Brexit”. Maybe there will be a referendum or an election which will change the direction the UK is taking. What impact this has on investments is anybody’s guess. One would not expect that Brexit should lead to a worldwide recession like the crisis of 2007/08.