Retirement planning newbie - any help gratefully received

Lady1981

hugheskevi said:

Lifetime ISA may be well worth considering as you do not have salary sacrifice and are not a higher rate taxpayer.

Perhaps a Stocks and Shares ISA may also be preferable to investing in a pension now? The investment can then be moved into a pension at a later date (indirectly, by contributing to pension from earnings and reducing/not increasing ISA), when the tax advantage from doing so may be larger? It can make a big difference if you think you may have access to salary sacrifice or pay a decent amount of higher rate tax in the future.

Thanks @hugheskevi. I live in Scotland where the higher tax rate is only £43k (which was also pretty much my last salary before covid), so definitely something I need to think about. Thanks for flagging it as something to consider. 

[Deleted User]

Edwards is probably the best starting point as it is short and simple and focused on UK pensions.  After that, if you want to understand what is happening, how to develop an investment strategy and stick with it...

1. The Four Pillars of Investing, William Bernstein. 

2. If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly, Willim Bernstein. Free download

3. The Intelligent Asset Allocator, William Bernstein. 

4. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle. 

5. Winning the Loser's Game, Charles D. Ellis.

6. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings, Philip A. Fisher. 

7. Risk is Still a Four Letter Word, George Hartman. 

8. One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch. 

9. Beating the Street, Peter Lynch. 

10. A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel. 

11. Where Are The Customers' Yachts?, Or, A Good Hard Look At Wall Street, Fred Schwed. 

12. Money Masters of Our Time, John Train. 

13. Risk less and prosper; your guide to safer investing, Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu
14. Your money and your brain.  Jason Zweig. 

This is too much; any 3 on this list will give you what you need. I am particularly fond of  Bernstein’s books. Obviously from a US perspective. Taxation and terminology are a little different but assets are the same, people are the same and risks are the same.  Canada has its own version of Bernstein, so the British one can’t be too far behind. Edwards kinda does it for the UK but he is very high level. Maybe Tim Hale; I haven’t read Smarter Investing. 

 Number 14 on the list is really helpful too, improves behaviour. Number 10 is an absolute classic. Number 4 has done more for retirees worldwide than any book or an IFA ever have. 

JohnWinder

Nice list. My impressions only:

Yes, #4 will have done that because it's pre-dates Hale's book, and being US based (although it's wisdom is generic) it has more potential readers (as US readers prefer US books and ? UK readers their own too). I read Hales first, and can't remember anything new in #4. And Hale is UK centric, and has a lot of specific, detailed information not systematically dealt with in #4, like 'how to evaluate an index'.

#6 predates index fund investing, which if #1-4 and Hale are correct, is the cornerstone of successful DIY investing.

I don't think 'any three' would beat Hale. #10 is famous but I got little from it; #5 has is based on a catchy notion, but the book is pretty narrow; #14 is good on how to avoid common mistakes, but only cognitive bias mistakes I think, and wouldn't leave a beginner confident in how to be their own IFA. Bernstein is very good. Hale's book (I've two editions) seems so well organised, systematic, well argued, that I had the impression he'd left nothing out.

[Deleted User]

10 and 14 are not manuals but they answer the question “why?” Understanding the theoretical foundation of your investment strategy and understanding why you are feeling certain emotions really helps to stay with the plan when it gets tough.  I am not in the US but Random Walk helped me to avoid temptations of a multitude of clever sounding strategies. Zweig is the best author on behavioural finance. 

The differences between countries only become important when you have a large pot. Otherwise every country has the same mix: a taxable account, a tax-deferred account and a tax-free account with after tax money.  There are other differences like the British stamp duty but its noise. 

Looks like Hale was recommended by Boggle, so I am sure he is great

ComicGeek

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is on Amazon kindle unlimited. Looking at the prices on eBay and elsewhere, might be cheaper to take 1 month kindle subscription and take notes.

NottinghamKnight

ComicGeek said:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is on Amazon kindle unlimited. Looking at the prices on eBay and elsewhere, might be cheaper to take 1 month kindle subscription and take notes.

I borrowed a copy from the library, may still be possible to do so electronically.

Lady1981

Deleted_User said:

Edwards is probably the best starting point as it is short and simple and focused on UK pensions.  After that, if you want to understand what is happening, how to develop an investment strategy and stick with it...

1. The Four Pillars of Investing, William Bernstein. 

2. If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly, Willim Bernstein. Free download

3. The Intelligent Asset Allocator, William Bernstein. 

4. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle. 

5. Winning the Loser's Game, Charles D. Ellis.

6. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings, Philip A. Fisher. 

7. Risk is Still a Four Letter Word, George Hartman. 

8. One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch. 

9. Beating the Street, Peter Lynch. 

10. A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel. 

11. Where Are The Customers' Yachts?, Or, A Good Hard Look At Wall Street, Fred Schwed. 

12. Money Masters of Our Time, John Train. 

13. Risk less and prosper; your guide to safer investing, Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu
14. Your money and your brain.  Jason Zweig. 

This is too much; any 3 on this list will give you what you need. I am particularly fond of  Bernstein’s books. Obviously from a US perspective. Taxation and terminology are a little different but assets are the same, people are the same and risks are the same.  Canada has its own version of Bernstein, so the British one can’t be too far behind. Edwards kinda does it for the UK but he is very high level. Maybe Tim Hale; I haven’t read Smarter Investing. 

 Number 14 on the list is really helpful too, improves behaviour. Number 10 is an absolute classic. Number 4 has done more for retirees worldwide than any book or an IFA ever have. 

Thanks for taking the time to share this @mordko.

Lady1981

JohnWinder said:

Nice list. My impressions only:

Yes, #4 will have done that because it's pre-dates Hale's book, and being US based (although it's wisdom is generic) it has more potential readers (as US readers prefer US books and ? UK readers their own too). I read Hales first, and can't remember anything new in #4. And Hale is UK centric, and has a lot of specific, detailed information not systematically dealt with in #4, like 'how to evaluate an index'.

#6 predates index fund investing, which if #1-4 and Hale are correct, is the cornerstone of successful DIY investing.

I don't think 'any three' would beat Hale. #10 is famous but I got little from it; #5 has is based on a catchy notion, but the book is pretty narrow; #14 is good on how to avoid common mistakes, but only cognitive bias mistakes I think, and wouldn't leave a beginner confident in how to be their own IFA. Bernstein is very good. Hale's book (I've two editions) seems so well organised, systematic, well argued, that I had the impression he'd left nothing out.

Thanks @johnwinder, I'll take your thoughts into account when deciding which to go for. 

Lady1981

ComicGeek said:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is on Amazon kindle unlimited. Looking at the prices on eBay and elsewhere, might be cheaper to take 1 month kindle subscription and take notes.

That's a great shout. Thanks @ComicGeek.

Lady1981

NottinghamKnight said:

ComicGeek said:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is on Amazon kindle unlimited. Looking at the prices on eBay and elsewhere, might be cheaper to take 1 month kindle subscription and take notes.

I borrowed a copy from the library, may still be possible to do so electronically.

Thanks @NottinghamKnight. Will definitely investigate the library.