Scottish Widows pension - 24 years to retire

welshsaver_2

Good morning all,

I'm after a bit of advice\direction on where I should be heading with my pension planning. I am currently 31 and would love to retire early at 55\60 with a decent pension pot. I put away about 16% (£600) of my salary into 3 Scottish Widow funds. These are listed below.

Fund Name

Units

Bid Price (p)

Bid Value (£)

SW Fid European

3594.58

343.70

12354.57

SW InvP High Income

3050.75

384.80

11739.29

Emerging Markets

2995.95

175.50

5257.89

My question is, should I be invedting in more funds? 3 seems a bit high risk, my only advise coming from a Scottish Widows pension advisor (Who may be biased in his opinion).Are the funds suitably for my risk level, which is high at this point in my life.

At present, I dont believe funds have really performed, they are worth what I have paid into them.

Can anyone see any flaws with my current investment plan?

Thanks

welshsaver_2

welshsaver wrote: »

Good morning all,

I'm after a bit of advice\direction on where I should be heading with my pension planning. I am currently 31 and would love to retire early at 55\60 with a decent pension pot. I put away about 16% (£600) of my salary into 3 Scottish Widow funds. These are listed below.

Fund Name

Units

Bid Price (p)

Bid Value (£)

SW Fid European

3594.58

343.70

12354.57

SW InvP High Income

3050.75

384.80

11739.29

Emerging Markets

2995.95

175.50

5257.89

My question is, should I be invedting in more funds? 3 seems a bit high risk, my only advise coming from a Scottish Widows pension advisor (Who may be biased in his opinion).Are the funds suitably for my risk level, which is high at this point in my life.

At present, I dont believe funds have really performed, they are worth what I have paid into them.

Can anyone see any flaws with my current investment plan?

Thanks

Sorry that chart didnt show correctly.

Fund Name

Units

Bid Value (£)

SW Fid European

Units -3594.58

£12354.57

SW InvP High Income

Units - 3050.75

£11739.29

Emerging Markets

Units - 2995.95

£5257.89

dunstonh

My question is, should I be invedting in more funds?

At the moment, your funds look like a random punt. There is no investment strategy in there. You are missing sectors and its a quit high risk approach.

3 seems a bit high risk

The number is not the issue. Where you invest is the issue. There are single funds that can do. There are also bespoke portfolios where you have a fund for each sector.

my only advise coming from a Scottish Widows pension advisor (Who may be biased in his opinion).

He is employed by Scot Wid. He will be biased. That is the nature of tied sales agents. However, Scot Wid used to have a process that documented the fund selection as your choice. All they had to do is make sure it matched your risk profile. So, there is a good probability that these funds are documented as you choosing them. Tied sales reps are not known for portfolio building.

.Are the funds suitably for my risk level, which is high at this point in my life.

Far too high risk given the lack of structure. On our scale of 1-10 (for conventional investors. i.e. specialist not included) you would come in at 10. It is unlikely you are a 10. This is mainly down to having 100% equity in an unstructured way. It should be noted that risk profiling is not standard across all firms. It has also undergone a lot of changes over the years.

Can anyone see any flaws with my current investment plan?

1 - no structure
2 - almost certainly above your risk profile
3 - Scot Wid is unlikely to be the best contract for you if this is an individual plan (their retirement plan is ok but the personal pension and stakeholder now look long in the tooth compared to others). If its a group scheme then you have little choice.

welshsaver_2

Thanks for the quick response, ive seen your previous posts so know you offer good opinions.

I think the safest\wisest choice is for me to get an IFA involved, I dread to think of the potential i've missed out on in the last few years.

Cheers