Basic Pension Question - sorry!

bagpussofsussex

Hi all,

I'm a self employed (sole trader), married female, 45, on a low income. I'm paying voluntary NI contributions to keep on top of my state pension levels and I have a small nest account which I pay £100/month into, on the basis that anything is better than nothing! I'm looking at increasing my contributions to £200/month, and was reading various threads on here recommending Vanguard etc. I'm wondering whether I'd be better to just increase my monthly Nest payment, or if I can/should start a vanguard (or similar) account - I note that their minimum level is £100/month.

Any/all thoughts gratefully received, I will admit to not knowing much of anything. We are likely to be mortgage free in ten years' time and do have about six months outgoings stashed away as a safety net so are not in a massively dire financial situation

Albermarle

The main point is that increasing your contributions can only be of benefit to your eventual pension pot, whoever the provider is .
Both NEST & Vanguard  have a number of different investments fund options. It is more important that you are in the right type of fund for your age, risk tolerance etc than which provider it is 

bagpussofsussex

Thank you for your reply. I've been reading that Nest charge high fees etc and are not the best decision, which is why I was wondering whether its possible or wise to have a vanguard plan running side by side - or even if it's possible to move my Nest balance over to Vanguard (which does seem to be highly rated) and just put my £200/month there. I do know that it's low/late but have quite a complicated family and employment history - and 'something' is better than nothing to top up my eventual state pension. I've also read that speaking to a financial advisor is likely to be expensive/overkill for the amount of money that I'm talking about. My husband has a good private pension scheme, his career has been less affected by family and health issues which have affected my employment history.

Albermarle

The ongoing charge for Nest is low at 0.3% all in . The issue is they charge a one off 1.8% on contributions . The longer you stay with them then the 1.8% charge gets more and more diluted.
Vanguard ( and hardly any other pension providers) have no initial charge . The platform fee is 0.15% and a typical fund cost is 0.22%
I would not bother running both . If you want to move to Vanguard , just open a SIPP with them and request them to transfer the Nest Pension. Just first make sure you are comfortable dealing with the wider range of choice of funds on the Vanguard website as you will have to pick the investment yourself .