Pension investments - any ideas?

MeOnMonSavExp

gadgetmind wrote: »

BTW, I went for the LS 100% equity plus some strategic bond funds for my wife but I doubt it will make much difference in the long run and does mean I have to rebalance myself.

I did look around at portfolio funds such as Jupiter Merlin Growth, but the fees are over 2% a year!

Thanks G'mind and westy - I'll look right now.

gadgetmind

MeOnMonSavExp wrote: »

You're probably right about that. Perhaps some of the emerging economy funds?

The timescale is such that a fair bit of EM exposure is a risk you can take, you need to ensure you have a balanced portfolio covering different territories and asset classes.

There are three main options, 1) learn how to put together and manage such a portfolio yourself (it's not too hard and there are good books on the subject), 2) pay an IFA to put this together and to rebalance it for you every year or so, 3) go for a portfolio fund and pay a fund manager to handle it.

I've done all three in the past, but now mainly use approach 1. I still use approach 3 in my group personal pension, but this is partly because I don't have much choice but also because it lets me access some good low-fee funds that use active asset allocation on top of mainly global trackers.

MeOnMonSavExp

gadgetmind wrote: »

The timescale is such that a fair bit of EM exposure is a risk you can take, you need to ensure you have a balanced portfolio covering different territories and asset classes.

There are three main options, 1) learn how to put together and manage such a portfolio yourself (it's not too hard and there are good books on the subject), 2) pay an IFA to put this together and to rebalance it for you every year or so, 3) go for a portfolio fund and pay a fund manager to handle it.

I've done all three in the past, but now mainly use approach 1. I still use approach 3 in my group personal pension, but this is partly because I don't have much choice but also because it lets me access some good low-fee funds that use active asset allocation on top of mainly global trackers.

I start some reading then.

gadgetmind

I usually recommend "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale while others prefer "Slow and Steady Steps" by, errr, I've forgotten!

MeOnMonSavExp

gadgetmind wrote: »

I usually recommend "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale while others prefer "Slow and Steady Steps" by, errr, I've forgotten!

John E Hulton ... thanks, I'll check it out.

sleepless_saver

MeOnMonSavExp wrote: »

Thanks G'mind and westy - I'll look right now.

Maybe buy the book for her so she can learn to manage her own money?? I'd go for Smarter Investing too BTW.

InsertWittyName

I have a similar setup to the one's mentioned above, approximately £35k invested in Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% in an HL SIPP. Means I can pretty much forget about it and it manages itself for very little fees.

I have a separate (work) pension however in addition to the above.

gadgetmind

Regards the equity versus bond splits discussed, the OP will understand this better after reading a book or two.

I'd like to hold a few more bonds that I do now but not at current prices.

atush

MeOnMonSavExp wrote: »

I agree that she needs to build up a Cash ISA fund for emergencies. At the moment she has the capacity to save in the region of £3600 a year. She has a workplace pension (just starting) contributing about £1450 p.a. (5% of the annual gross). She's 39 and has about 17 years contributions to state pension.

She (we, in fact) know little about investments, but I wonder with such a moderate fund whether an IFA would provide value for money (that's why I'm here in fact).

I had assumed the best thing to do was to leave it in the HL SIPP. I guess, my question was where to distribute it within that.

Don't ever assume (ie leaving it in an HL SIPP) until you read up more lol. Esp if you aren't looking at Lifestyling funds.

Good luck on your reading.