pension or premium bonds

dunstonh

Keep costs and commissions down, maintain a balanced portfolio, understand risk and correlation between different investments, never buy anything you don't understand and keep away from salesmen, IFAs and other parasites.

The OP is considering options which, if possible, would be totally daft. Yet you are telling him to keep away from IFAs. Fair enough telling him to keep away from salesmen and FAs but it seems a bit silly to steer him away from the one group that could help him.

jamesd

mikeyranson wrote: »

I lost nearly £10,000 of my halifax shares

That was a massive screw up by you. Massive failure to have proper diversification and after financial mismanagement of that level you should decrease your trust in yourself and increase your use of funds instead of direct share holdings.

mikeyranson wrote: »

whether i could transfer that money and put it into premium bonds instead

Another planned massive screwup by you, decrease your level of trust in youro wn flawed decision-making. premium bonds will not even keep up with inflation, they are entirely unsuitable for the bulk of retirement planning.

mikeyranson wrote: »

I have no trust, faith or likeness for banks after recent events.

That's fine.

mikeyranson wrote: »

I dont trust the markets

They go up and down. They are also the only game in town when it comes to sensible retirement planning for most people. Best to learn more about how they move up and down and pick a range of investments that seem appropriate for your risk tolerance.

mikeyranson wrote: »

i dont trust my financial advisor anymore as i think he is chasing his bonus points or commission

If it's a plain financial adviser and not an IFA, switch to an IFA. IFAs are required to offer you the option of paying a fee instead of by commission so there is no possibility of commission bias if you do that.

Ask for a second opinion about what the adviser is suggesting. We're not potentially subject to commission bias and are not reluctant to tell you what we think, dispassionately, including appropriate criticisms of your own actions and plans such as that you've received in many posts here. This doesn't mean we dislike you, just that we want to be sure you properly understand the situation and what to do about it.

Loughton_Monkey

mikeyranson wrote: »

.......Any advice is much appreciated.

My advice is to 'calm down dear...'.

To most of us who know a bit about the Financial Services industry your mistrust is partly understandable, but also so extreme that you are likely to go from frying pan into fire.

I equally distrust Utility companies. They come across as profiteering sharks, over-paying their stuffy senior staff and under-investing in providing a good service/value... But we can only fight this by critically examining their charges, our own usage, and ruthlessly shop around/switch and ditch, to lower our costs.

What you are suggesting is the equivalent of me deciding to cut my electricity cables, my gas pipes, and my water supply. I could put solar panels on my roof, a wind turbine in my back garden, and collect all my water from downpipes. I'd buy drinking water from Tesco and heat my kettle with a butane stove. Yes! Two fingers up to the energy industry, but it is ludicrous to think that I would now be in a better position than my more tolerant next door neighbour.....

I can think of 50+ ways of providing for retirement. In order of being viable, Pensions head the list, alongside Stocks & Shares ISA's.

Premium bonds would be at about the bottom of the list. I would much rather my cash [non retirement savings] be in Coventry at 3.25% than in Premium Bonds.

So I would advise you to learn a little bit about the Financial Services industry. Do some calculations to tell you what income you would like in retirement, and at what age. Understand what a huge challenge that is. Then get real and recognise that you have to invest and not just save.

atush

tell_it_how_it_is wrote: »

LOL, he probably wasn't looking for sympathy, but neither will he have been expecting to be blamed for causing it. By a complete stranger.

OP, no chance you can get at your pension cash, and even if you could, if you take me as an example, premium bonds would be a complete waste of time.

Too true, ;-) but his rant irked me.

And I did say "you may have". They might not have either but it is silly to say a divorce made him poor. Being married might have made them wealthier to begin with.

In any case, the OP needs to put MORE into his pension not less as 35K isn't a very large pot. And to read up on investing if they don't trust others to make the investments for them. Premium bnds are fun for a small flutter, but never a place to put 30K- you'd be better off buying lottery tickets with the earnings from a 3% easy access acct.

I also love the utility comparison story. and I like utilities as part of a well diversified portfolio. After all, we all need them unless we want to live in the backwoods somewhere on rainwater and peat fires ;-)

dunstonh

In any case, the OP needs to put MORE into his pension not less as 35K isn't a very large pot.

£35k of retirement provision is ok for around age 35 or under. If the OP is aged over 35 then it is low. The closer to retirement, the worse it is.

Too true, ;-) but his rant irked me.

It did me too. Although more because the reasoning was so flawed. A case of 2+2 equals 22 style thinking.

How did Lloyds cause a £10k loss on Halifax shares for example?
Or mixing banks and insurance companies up (or investments within them)
Or thinking that Premium Bonds were a better option

bigadaj

Just a devils advocate point but as annuities are primarily based on gilts, then there could be an argument for premium bonds being better, yields are lower but probably less loss of capital as well should they be redeemed.

jamesd

I'd rather buy Premium Bonds than gilts at the moment but I'd rather buy something else than either.

Herongull

bigadaj wrote: »

Just a devils advocate point but as annuities are primarily based on gilts, then there could be an argument for premium bonds being better, yields are lower but probably less loss of capital as well should they be redeemed.

It doesn't this way. Before retirement you need to build your pension pot, and investing in premium bonds ain't the way to do it! It will just be eaten away by inflation.

At the end of the day you need to buy an annuity with it, but if this is a long way off don't worry too much about the current low annuity rates, quantitative easing may not last forever.

BobQ

dunstonh wrote: »

The OP is considering options which, if possible, would be totally daft. Yet you are telling him to keep away from IFAs. Fair enough telling him to keep away from salesmen and FAs but it seems a bit silly to steer him away from the one group that could help him.

I agree. While its possible that Herongull has his own reasons for being scepical of advisors, the OP is surely better entrusting himself to an IFA given his current level of understanding of savings and investments.