Investment Advice for the worst investor ever!

EdGasketTheSecond

NedS wrote: »

If the OP intends to retire early, and uses a SIPP to fund those early retirement years (s)he could withdraw £12500 pa tax free. Add another £12500 pa from a partner's SIPP and a couple can achieve £25K pa tax free income which (for us) is enough to live on, so tax relief on the way in and no tax on the way out. For anyone over 55, this is an instant 25% return without having to put any capital at risk. OP is unlikely to see a 25% return on their premium bonds.

That assumes enough years of getting no other taxable income to get your pension money out which if you don't retire until 63 say; only leaves 3 years which equates to £37500 from a single SIPP; what about the remaining £xxxK ? That gets taxed except for the 25% that is tax-free. The thing is it will take years to get your money back from a pension without paying too much tax on it. If you already have it tax-free in savings then doesn't seem right to put it into a pension though I understand there is a limited case for doing so.

Albermarle

I’d like to maybe have a bash at stocks and shares ISA’s but haven’t a clue where to star

Normally a pension is invested also in stocks and shares , but compared to S& S ISA there is a tax benefit for the pension .
Therefore you really only have two basic choices :
Stay with Premium Bonds or other safe cash based savings . The interest rate is even less than inflation so your money will slowly lose value but will be safe from market volatility .
Or invest in risk based investments ( eg stocks and shares ) that you hope will go up more than the first choice, but might also go down .If you make this choice you should do it via a pension to gain the tax benefit and not via an ISA.