What can you do to ensure you are investing your pension contributions sensibly? Some tips from Argus on how to cope with difficult market conditions:

Recognise that fluctuations in the value of your account will occur. Your statement is only a snapshot of your balance at a particular point in time. Throughout the rest of the year, the value of the underlying investments could be higher (or lower).

Just because the value of your investments falls, it does not mean that you have actually lost money. You only lose money when you sell an investment at a price that is lower than when you bought it.

Your contributions are invested in mutual funds that are diversified and professionally managed. This diversification means that your contributions are invested among securities of different companies, in different industries and in different countries of the world, reducing the investment risk compared to investing in individual stocks.

Do not let short-term market movements dictate a material change in your investment strategy. However, if you are uncomfortable with your selected investment strategy, you may wish to re-assess your risk tolerance by completing an investment strategy questionnaire.

With dollar cost averaging, a fundamental investment technique, pension contributions are invested in both up and down markets, which means that you purchase more units when prices are low and less units when prices are high.

Take a long-term view. Although retirement is closer for some of us than others, the key is not to panic when the market goes down. If you sell your investments after the markets have gone down, you will miss most of the upswings that could follow.