Return on equity ISA and retirement investments?

They say that you should return an average of 9%/year after tax on various managed funds in ISA's and pensions. Does anyone actually come close to this return or is it just me making less than 3% most years? How do you go about changing and choosing the best returns?
UK replies only please unless you have foreign funds to suggest.
Thanks, Ed.

If you can find an ISA that pays 9% I'd like to see it! I think the best one around at the moment is about 6% and that's only an introductory offer. My pension is better but not 9%... who's this "they", then, and where do they put their money? :)

Changing the make-up of your investments within a pension fund can normally be done once a year. Keep your ear to the ground and see what the markets are doing - do you get out of equities and into property, or into fixed-rate bonds? It's a gamble, but remember you're thinking long-term - don't panic over one or two bad years. Look what happened to it all on September 11th, and that couldn't have been predicted.

You should have no trouble hitting 5-6% ... even if all you do is buy FTSE100 shares and bank the dividends.

If you are only getting 3% I guess you are either 'churning' your stocks too fast to get the dividends or are choosing too many 'penny shares' ...

If it's not working for you, maybe you should stick with cash funds or Index trackers ?

(NB - a lot of people are getting very nervous about the stock market - if investing in shares I would try to pick ones that are going to survive any possible downturn - Oil, Water, Food ..)

If you have a decent amount of money in ISAs. do you use a fund supermarket and keep track of your investments on-line it is easy to move money from fund to fund to get the best return. I would suggest you think about funds investing in commercial property around the world as well as shares and bonds. If you're not using a fund supermarket Fidelity have a good one which is called Fundsnetwork.