Cheapest Sipp: build yourself a low cost DIY pension article

simonspeakeasy

dunstonh wrote: »

...as well as a lot of better ways of investing than a FTSE100 tracker

Looks like you are putting charges of 0.x% a year ahead of proper investing. It should be where and how to invest first. Charges come later in the decision process.

Fair enough; any thoughts? Based on an aversion to both risk (I'm over 50) and fees?

dunstonh

simonspeakeasy wrote: »

Fair enough; any thoughts? Based on an aversion to both risk (I'm over 50) and fees?

100% UK equity in a poorly diversified index is high risk. Potential loss of over 40% of value. (which has happened twice in the last 15 years). So, certainly does not match someone with an aversion to risk.

I cant tell you how to invest as that is regulated advice and the board is not allowed to do that. However, it does appear you need to focus more on that as there is little point being happy about saving say 0.2% a year whilst not accepting loss potential of up to 45% or so.

mgdavid

simonspeakeasy wrote: »

Absolutely - I spent an hour or so last night reviewing comments & reading the Telegraph articles.

Then you will have picked up that the 'cheapest' SIPP depends on fund size, your investment approach (strategy plus frequency of trades), the method and frequency of you taking income from the SIPP, etc, and you haven't told us any of these yet.
However the tool in post #274 should help you decide.

simonspeakeasy

dunstonh wrote: »

100% UK equity in a poorly diversified index is high risk. Potential loss of over 40% of value. (which has happened twice in the last 15 years). So, certainly does not match someone with an aversion to risk.

mgdavid wrote: »

Then you will have picked up that the 'cheapest' SIPP depends on fund size, your investment approach (strategy plus frequency of trades), the method and frequency of you taking income from the SIPP, etc, and you haven't told us any of these yet.
However the tool in post #274 should help you decide.

Thanks a lot for the link to the tool; I missed that.
My exposure to UK Equities is quite small compared with my exposure to property (both by way of my farm & holiday cottages) and a UK property fund). I also have European equities (excluding UK).

The fund I'm going to transfer from is currently valued at ~£110k. And I'm probably not going to make many contributions or trades.
I'll probably access a lump sum from the pension sooner rather than later (5 years maybe) & use the proceeds to invest back into my holiday cottage business (which will then result in an increase in income).

Thanks for your help so far guys!

mgdavid

5 years is not long (enough) for smoothing out the peaks and troughs of equity investment so you are probably going to have to play uber-safe and use a low-risk vehicle that just keeps up with inflation.
There are worse SIPP providers than Charles Stanley Direct, dead easy to set up, I find the web interface simple and pleasing too.

simonspeakeasy

mgdavid wrote: »

5 years is not long (enough) for smoothing out the peaks and troughs of equity investment . . .

Fair enough, but the fund I'm transferring *from* already gives lots of exposure to equities.
I guess I need to decide how much of the exposure should continue and wherther I should (as you suggest) reduce it . . .
I'll certainly make a point of *broadening* my exposure to take in bond funds and other low risk investments that can be tracked.

Out of interest, is there any reason why shouldn't I just go for the cheapest platform (e.g. II, iWeb etc) assuming they carry the sort funds I'm interested in.

Cheers

kennyb41

Could someone kindly advise me if Best Invest is my best route to go down for this...
I'm leaving Fidelity and transferring £24k into a sip with Best invest so I can invest into 3 current favourite Aim stocks I like,Fidelity currently don't allow this,after reading this thread I'm torn between iii and best invest,i will put £8k into eack stock and sit on them for 5 years until I'm 55yrs old.
tia.

AlanP_2

kennyb41 wrote: »

Could someone kindly advise me if Best Invest is my best route to go down for this...
I'm leaving Fidelity and transferring £24k into a sip with Best invest so I can invest into 3 current favourite Aim stocks I like,Fidelity currently don't allow this,after reading this thread I'm torn between iii and best invest,i will put £8k into eack stock and sit on them for 5 years until I'm 55yrs old.
tia.

No idea on whether Best Invest is the best (by which you mean cheapest I guess) option but have a look at candidmoney website's guide to cheapest providers to get some comparisons.

The other point is that, on the face of it and with no background information on your overall financial / pension / life situation, this appears a very high risk startgey.

Single company shares are relatively high risk, adding the fact that they are AIM listed so generally smaller and more speculative investments and they are likely to be all based in the UK then the risk factors go up even more.

gadgetmind

kennyb41 wrote: »

so I can invest into 3 current favourite Aim stocks

I assume this is money that you don't mind losing?

ikan_bilis_2

Several posts have asked or mentioned the cheapest/best fund supermarkets, but the platform fee is not the only thing to consider. The fund fees seem to vary greatly: I have a SIPP and ISA with Hargreaves Lansdown and was advised that they're expensive but the fund charge is about 1.25% pa average for each fund. The supermarkets (that I've checked so far) charge an average of 1.75% for the same fund!

Has anyone got any comments on this because there are about 20 supermarkets to check, so be good to eliminate a few now!