Martin Lewis: Insight as man, 61, sees pension value drop by £30k amid coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the UK, impacting not only on people's health, but also on the economy and personal finances. In an effort to help people concerned about how the outbreak will affect them financially, Martin Lewis hosted a one-off special of The Martin Lewis Money Show on Thursday.

The episode saw the financial journalist and co-host Angellica Bell encourage members of the public to email and call in with their queries and concerns.

During the show, one caller, aged 61, told of how his pension savings had been impacted by the crisis.

Having seen his pension savings having reduced in value by £30,000 within the week, Malcolm explained he wasn't sure of his next steps.

Malcolm, from Worthing, said: "I have an unclaimed pension on a recognised pension platform. Last week it was valued at £153,000.

Martin Lewis talks about pension savings amid coronavirus pandemic hitting UK

Martin Lewis spoke on the topic of pension savings during the coronavirus special (Image: GETTY / ITV)

"It's now down to £123,000. I'm 61 and after 43 years as a biomedical scientist, I'm trying to retire, with a small NHS pension and my wife has a state pension.

"Do I sit, and wait, and hope it recovers? Or can I do something else?"

Upon hearing Malcolm's story, Mr Lewis replied: "I think, what you have to remember, is there are only two prices that count when it comes to shares - which is what your pension is, it's an investment."

He went on to explain that the two prices he referred to were "the price you buy them at, and the price you sell them at".

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The Money Saving Expert founder continued: "The price inbetween doesn't really matter. So if you don't need to sell right now, while there is no law, we hope we're going to be out of this one day."

Looking ahead towards a positive future scenario, Mr Lewis said: "The economy was pretty good, [hopefully] things are going to recover, companies will start making money again and share prices will go up. So if you can wait, do - but I'm not going to answer because we've got a proper markets expert over there and it's not my subject."

Mr Lewis then asked investment expert Chris Justham for this thoughts on the query.

Mr Justham said: "I would agree, and I would say that maths and history are friends here, and they certainly support what you said.

"Because, if we look at some of those numbers, and we rely on facts - because emotion tends to take over here so lets rely on logic to rationalise this.

"If we look at the last 20 years, and we look at 5,000 days between 1995 and 2015, so that includes the dotcom crash, that includes the financial crisis - which seems like an awful long time ago now.

"In those 5,000 days, if you'd remained invested, that'd have been a nine and a half percent annualised return. It'd have gone up and down by an average annualised nine and a half percent.

"Miss 10 of the best days, that nine and a half percent drops to six percent. Miss 40 of the best days, tht nine and a half percent goes actually negative.

"So, if I then tell you, that six of those 10 best days actually become during the first two weeks that follow the 10 worst days, what does that tell us? Well, it tells us, knee-jerk reactions hurt.

"We shouldn't panic and sell, however uncomfortable it feels, and that if we actually zoom out and we look at years rather than weeks, trajectory is upwards.

"So, don't panic. Stay the course, however uncomfortable it feels, because maths and history are rooting for you."

Mr Lewis added that while there are no rights or wrongs on this matter, the aforementioned suggestions are general guidance of what a person would do.

The Martin Lewis Money Show - A Coronavirus Special is available to watch now on the ITV Hub.

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