£22k to invest in pension

kazza106

I have just had £22k transferred from an old company pension into a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdowne and would appreciate some advise as to how to distribute it so that I have a reasonably balanced portfolio of funds.
I am 37 years and want to take a medium risk approach. My other investments include another comany pension scheme worth around £20k (that I may transfer into my SIPP at a future date), around £20k in a cash ISA and a couple of BTL properties.

All advice appreciated.

K.

dunstonh

would appreciate some advise as to how to distribute it so that I have a reasonably balanced portfolio of funds.

The whole point of a SIPP is that you self select. You should ask HL for advice. After all, they are charging you the same as if you had used an adviser (probably more than an adviser if you are an inexperienced investor).

It would be against board rules and FSA guidelines to recommend investments.

kazza106

Hi again,

I understand that it's a SIPP and as such I will be self selecting, however, I was more just looking for opinions on what types of fund a balanced portfolio would hold and in what percentages rather than anything specific and maybe anything else I should consider. I certainly wasn't looking to break any board rules.

DiggerUK

kazza106 wrote: »

......... I was more just looking for opinions on what types of fund a balanced portfolio would hold........ I certainly wasn't looking to break any board rules.

Giving advice on an open forum is normal, and breaks no rules.
You accept it, or you reject it. Simples.

I am no fan of private pensions and would advise you to put no more in to them.
As you have funds tied up in them till you are 55, then a SIPP at least gives you maximum control of what is locked away.
Most equities are on a hiding to nothing with the current economic climate, and should all be classed as high risk.

The safest place for your funds are in gold, which will have to be "paper gold" in ETF's, stick to brand names.
The other area to consider are "Gold Miners", were you invest in the mines themselves.
You could do that with both your ISA cash and SIPP funds.
The Cash ISA money could also be put in to NSI Index Linked savings certificates. It would still be tax free, and leave the advantage of you being able to get your hands on it if you need to.

Best of fortune.

dunstonh

I just checked the rules and couldnt find the old rule that told us not to make investment recommendations. I couldnt find the one about stock recommendations either and the board were always hot on removing those.
. There appears to have been a tidy up in the forum rules. However, there there were a few lines in there which Digger frequently breaks.

You must not:

9.2.12 intentionally make false or misleading statements about investments, their price or their prospects. If you do, you may be committing a criminal offence.

Hmm, how safe is gold and gold miners Digger?

leahciM

dunstonh wrote: »

9.2.12 intentionally make false or misleading statements about investments, their price or their prospects. If you do, you may be committing a criminal offence.

where has digger intentionally mislead OP?

I mean no disrespect, but considering Digger clearly states that he/she is suggesting something and it's up to OP to evaluate it, as well as digger's signature which also clearly states that he is not an IFA, I can't help fell that you are being overly cautious/pernickety with the rules here Dunstonh.

jamesd

Gold is completely safe. Unlike a house or cash it won't burn down in a fire. If crooks come and try to steal it you can always choose to resist and not tell them where to find your supply and accept the injuries they inflict on you.

Gold is also completely unsafe. It's easy to steal it and deprive you of your investment. It doesn't pay dividends or interest so most of the time people holding it aren't making the money they could be making with shares. Worse still, people tend to be interested in buying it when the price is high and then selling when the price is low, one of the best ways there is to lose money on investments.

It's too late for anyone other than short term traders to do more than a tiny amount of gold buying in the current economic situation, the price has already risen to high levels and there are better prospects in other investments, not in something that'll plummet in value.

I hold some gold-related investments, but only a fairly small part of my total investments. It's handy for reducing up and down movements because they can tend to go up when many other things go down. But I don't expect to make a lot of money on it now and it's only suitable for perhaps 5% of total investments at most, for most people.

jamesd

leahciM, DiggerUK has almost completely reversed the actual situation:

1. Investments like shares are at quite low prices and now is a good time to be buying for long term holding to gain as they rise in the rest of the economic cycle.
2. Gold is at high prices and the smart money has already made its profits on the initial quadrupling of the price. Those who go in now are likely to be buying near the top, then lose much of their money during the ongoing economic recovery.

DiggerUK knows this, just likes gold as an investment at almost al times, it seems. DiggerUK will sometimes sensibly discuss this but usually sticks to the gold promoting.

Nothing wrong with being contrarian. Just do the opposite of what DiggerUK usually suggests and do what Warren Buffet does instead and you should be fine.

leahciM

I'm have zero intention of buying gold.

But Dunstonhs's comment implies that digger is intentionally misleading the OP. I'm not here to champion digger or gold, but I just feel that plucking specific rules out to imply knowledge of intention is a little unfair, particularly when the majority of the savings and investment section of the MSE forums is based around exactly what Dunstonh seems to have issue with - suggesting investments.

Ultimately, I'm not that bothered

dunstonh

But Dunstonhs's comment implies that digger is intentionally misleading the OP.

Diggers posts are frequently misleading and inaccurate. He knows it, we all know it yet he still does it.

Comments like Gold is safe, will never lose money or gold mining shares are safe (they are actually specialist and high risk) are totally wrong. It is intentional misleading.

the savings and investment section of the MSE forums is based around exactly what Dunstonh seems to have issue with - suggesting investments.

The board has always been negative towards making investment recommendations. Threads/posts have been removed in the past. That is why you dont see much of it posted.

Ignoring that though, there are about 50,000 odd investments and an almost unlimited variation available. We know nothing about the investment knowledge of the OP (he is in an experienced investor product but the fact he is asking suggests he doesnt know), we know nothing about the risk profile (says medium but where is that in context), we dont know what type of investments he wants to use (Its a sipp so that would suggest direct investments but its in a pretend SIPP that is really focused on funds rather than direct investments), we dont know what sort of strategy he intends to use or what level of servicing he intends to do (so will it be a portfolio of funds or a portfolio within a fund). On the criteria given so far, no-one can suggest anything and if we did it would be largely pointless and benefit no-one.

If you dont know what you are doing then you are probably better off either paying someone to do it (and the OP is paying full commission so why not get advice that he is paying for) or use a self balancing portfolio fund.

leahciM

Good points, well made.