pension<\/a> \u2013 saved into a self-invested personal pension \u2013 was fully invested in UK stocks, including major retailers and fashion names.<\/p>\nBut by 4 April, he had moved almost all of it \u2013 90 per cent \u2013 into safer cash investments.<\/p>\n
He also had a stocks and shares ISA earmarked for retirement savings heavily invested in stocks, but has moved most of the money in this into cash too completing his \u201cexit from the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of his movements were made before markets started to fall, but some were made after, resulting in some losses from the peak of his investments.<\/p>\n
He says he wishes he had done some more of the changes before liberation day.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cI started liquidating almost everything and completed my selling on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the right call, but I should\u2019ve been more active in selling before \u2018liberation day\u2019. It was a clear risk, and I just ignored it \u2013 like everyone else, it seems, given the sell-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Taylor is part of a growing wave of investors pulling out of equities in the wake of Trump\u2019s economic nationalism \u2013 the belief that a nation\u2019s economic interests should be prioritised over those of other countries.<\/p>\n
The tariffs rattled markets around the world, especially in the UK, where exporters and luxury brands have been particularly hard hit.<\/p>\n
Many were concerned about the hit to their investments \u2013 including their pension pots.
Mr Taylor, who runs the trading Instagram page Shifting Shares, added: \u201cOne of my ex-largest positions, Burberry, has completely cratered. I\u2019m better off having sold.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the day he cashed in his pension, the FTSE 100 index touched a more than three-month low, down nearly 5 per cent \u2013 the largest daily drop since March 2020, when world markets slumped due to Covid.<\/p>\n
While the decision to go into cash is often seen as a last resort, he believes it is the most rational play in the current climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrade will be much harder, and uncertainty has spiked. No company can plan given the tariff uncertainty. The whole investing landscape is different now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Taylor said he does not usually track his account daily, only once a month or so, but began to shift his holdings after concern mounted about geopolitical tensions in the lead-up to the tariffs.<\/p>\n
Despite this, he admitted he missed the signs, adding: \u201cI wish I\u2019d been more active earlier. Even as a trader, it\u2019s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security.\u201d
Less than 10 per cent of his pension remains invested at present, and he\u2019s in no rush to re-enter the markets.<\/p>\n
Experts warn against making rash decisions <\/p>\n
Although many may be tempted to remove their funds from their investments, financial advisers tell savers not to make any \u201cknee-jerk reactions\u201d as cashing their pension in could mean they miss out on the latest bounce back.<\/p>\n
Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and partner at LCP, said: \u201cThis is a reminder of the virtues of investing for the long-term and of diversifying across a range of assets and markets, and of the risks of knee-jerk reactions to short-term market swings\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell, added: \u201cWhile the circumstances are not normal, volatility has always been part and parcel of long-term investing.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as the dips in value of funds off the back of the tariff announcement didn\u2019t spell retirement disaster for the vast majority, the bounce back we have seen as a result of the tariff pause doesn\u2019t amount to pensions ecstasy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPension savers are usually looking to get returns over decades, so fluctuations over the space of a week can normally be ridden out without any fuss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Taylor, 34, said he does not regret the move, which he thinks could save him tens of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,6615,617,2499,554,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-27012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-investing","11":"tag-pensions","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-trump-tariffs","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114352297334524615","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}