15 year race ........

ffacoffipawb

Just opened a stakeholder pension with L&G and another with Aviva.

£100 gross / £78 net going into each one. (*)

Wonder which will win at the end of 15 years when I intend to retire!

May do another 3100 with someone else.

(*) May not seem much, but my combined employer and employee contribution into a CIMP scheme amounts to 40% so this is just a little extra paid by me to keep my salary, net of pension contributions, in the basic tax threshold. And separate from employer scheme.

I could take this (large) balance out when i leave said employer and place it in one of these, just to keep the money safer from employer going T-U, not that i think they will.

dunstonh

Just opened a stakeholder pension with L&G and another with Aviva.

£100 gross / £78 net going into each one. (*)

Wonder which will win at the end of 15 years when I intend to retire!

Thats not how it works. The pensions themselves dont make or lose money. Its the investments within them that do.

Both providers have fund based discounts and having one provider would be cheaper than splitting it over two. Plus the NU stakeholder is quite poor compared to the NU personal pension which is actually cheaper and has more funds.

You are investing money but the one thing you havent mentioned is the investment. This is the most important thing after all.

ffacoffipawb

dunstonh wrote:

Thats not how it works. The pensions themselves dont make or lose money. Its the investments within them that do.

I know that, what I meant was that both plans will have the same money going in at the same time. And I wonder which will have the greater value when I want to draw the benefit out.

Should I cancel both these and go for a £3000 (net of basic tax pa) SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown instead because I like the look of that one but is £3000 (plus basic tax relief) going to make that more worthwhile?

EdInvestor

But what will the money actually be going into?

"Stakeholder pension plan" only describes the tax wrapper.
Doesn't tell you anything really.

It you had put the money in their respective With profits funds, say, it might be more meaningful.But I'm sure you won't have done that in this day and age.

Likewise if you put money in a SIPP, what are you going to invest it in? Shares, gilts, unit trusts or investment trusts ( which ones?) , cash?

ffacoffipawb

EdInvestor wrote:

But what will the money actually be going into?

"Stakeholder pension plan" only describes the tax wrapper.
Doesn't tell you anything really.

It you had put the money in their respective With profits funds, say, it might be more meaningful.But I'm sure you won't have done that in this day and age.

Likewise if you put money in a SIPP, what are you going to invest it in? Shares, gilts, unit trusts or investment trusts ( which ones?) , cash?

L&G: L&G UK Equity Index Fund (Lifestyle Profile)
Aviva: Similar Choice, without Lifestyling

NB I am also fully mini cash ISA'd (Halifax Direct 4.75%) and Self Select Mini Share ISA'd ("HYP" shares via Squaregain).

EdInvestor

Hi ffac

Could I just point out that choosing a tracker within a stakeholder pension wrapper means that you are paying a 1.5% charge for a fund which is obtainable outside the pension wrapper for 0.5% or less?

I would suggest you used the ISA I plan at Squaregain for the trackers ( via ETFs) and buy your HYP via Halifax Sharebuilder outside a tax wrapper, as it's not really necessary to have tax protection for it at present.

If you like the HYP idea, you could look at an Equity Income fund for the money in NU and L&G, as the HYP is basically a DIY version (minus charges) of an equity income fund.

Alternatively, you could try putting the money in the two insurers' (commercial) property funds. That would give you a nice spread which should work out well long term.

And you could still hold the race.