Any recommendations for a good pensions book or blog?

OldMusicGuy

Trouble is that many advisers just charge you for simplistic, formulaic advice. Finding a good one can be hard. And none of them are cheap. 

I was like you five years ago. I had never thought much about investments, made some silly choices but just saved hard. As I was then approaching retirement I started to read books and frequent this forum. Reading a long post on here about safe withdrawal rates was an absolute eye-opener for me, I had never heard of that concept before.

I now manage my own investment portfolio (which is significant and my only source of pension income apart from SP) and it has performed exactly as I hoped it would through this crisis. But it took me at least three years to get to the level where I was comfortable with what I was doing. BTW when I say "manage", there is nothing complex at all in what I do, I just made a few straightforward choices and stuck with them (plus the occasional rebalancing).

The best thing to do (like Albermarle says) is to do some reading and research first so that your level of understanding is much higher than it is now. That will start giving you a sense of whether you want to do this on your own or go to an IFA, and that's the point at which to engage with IFAs. If you don't know more about how pensions and investment strategies work, you won't be able to choose between advisers.
 

[Deleted User]

I second the John Edwards book, (and his other one as well). Simple, straight forward, allows you to understand the lingo whilst taking advice (if you want). His example portfolio is also bearing up well in today's market. (I started tracking it in April 2019 and its held its value, up 2.6% - much more than the other portfolios I track)

digbydog

Thanks for the recommendations. I got hold of a copy of the John Edwards book. It is not a massive book (111 pages) according to Amazon, and I read it in just a few days. A nice fairly easy read.  It was pitched at the right level for me. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is 'whats a pension', and 10 is '40 years as an IFA', then I would give it a 4, that is not a rating but an idea at what level it is pitched at. 
Unfortunately, it has now raised further questions that need investigating.
Thanks for your help.

[Deleted User]

digbydog said:

Thanks for the recommendations. I got hold of a copy of the John Edwards book. It is not a massive book (111 pages) according to Amazon, and I read it in just a few days. A nice fairly easy read.  It was pitched at the right level for me. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is 'whats a pension', and 10 is '40 years as an IFA', then I would give it a 4, that is not a rating but an idea at what level it is pitched at. 
Unfortunately, it has now raised further questions that need investigating.
Thanks for your help.

Fortunately would be a better word! Same thing when I read it, "oops I need to educate myself more". I find the heavier books a bit dry but at least it now allows me to read the Monevator and other blogs with some sort of comprehension of what they are talking about