Small pension pot - high risk investment advice please!

ng1412

I have two very, very small pensions that were taken out years ago and are just sitting doing nothing (or near to nothing!).  I have another main pension that will be my ultimate income source. I really would like to take a risk on the smaller ones and put in a high risk pension fund or similar but when I asked Aviva (current pension provider) about this they just sent me a list of high risk names which mean nothing to me. Anyone any advice or can point me in the right direction on what kind of thing to be looking for? If I lose the money it won't make any difference to my lifestyle on retirement but I'd like to just boost any funds now (I am 51) before then. 

AlanP_2

Why not just combine them all in to 1 larger pot and manage that going forwards? Depends on charges etc. but sounds like an easier option to me.

ng1412

Thanks - I am happy to combine them, but even together they are worth near to nothing and wouldn't give me more than a couple of pounds a month as a pension! So yes I would definitely combine but I'd still like to invest into a high risk pension pot.  

AlanP_2

ng1412 said:

Thanks - I am happy to combine them, but even together they are worth near to nothing and wouldn't give me more than a couple of pounds a month as a pension! So yes I would definitely combine but I'd still like to invest into a high risk pension pot.  

So what you need to do is choose a high risk investment from the options available from your pension platform / provider.

For company schemes this may be a short list of say 10-200 choices, for an independent SIPP it will be 30K+ choices potentially.

No one can make suggestions until you have selected a short-list you think are suitable and are available from the "shop" you use.

What is you main pension invested in? 

dunstonh

and are just sitting doing nothing (or near to nothing!)

Why is that?    Pensions dont just sit there.  They are invested and are subject to investment returns.    They should be doing something. 

 really would like to take a risk on the smaller ones and put in a high risk pension fund or similar but when I asked Aviva (current pension provider) about this they just sent me a list of high risk names which mean nothing to me. 

Its usually a good idea to know what you are doing before you do something.

Anyone any advice or can point me in the right direction on what kind of thing to be looking for?

You dont have the knowledge and understanding to use single sector funds. (funds that invest in one region and are designed to be held as part of a wider portfolio).   You should stick to their multi-asset funds and pick the highest risk one from there.

but even together they are worth near to nothing and wouldn't give me more than a couple of pounds a month as a pension!

But if you are not taking it as a pension but using it as an investment wrapper, it doesnt matter. 

So yes I would definitely combine but I'd still like to invest into a high risk pension pot.  

And you can still do that by combining them.

Steve182

If you want a high risk/high reward investment you could do a lot worse than Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. However you will not be able to invest through a company pension. You would need to transfer it to a SIPP.    

ng1412

Thanks all for such useful responses!

JohnWinder

Just to keep the thinking clear, I think you're really asking for a high RETURN option where you asked for a high risk option. They are related, directly not inversely obviously, but you can get high risk choices with less return than similar risk options which should have more return. People make those comparisons with a Sharpe ratio: something like how high the return is compared with how much the value of the asset varies over periods of time (a risk measure).

You can reduce some of that risk, without hurting returns (on average), by diversifying within an asset class; so, by buying lots of shares rather than just 3 or 4. I don't know what your investment options will be, but I'd guess shares will be the highest return choice available. So, beyond choosing shares, I don't know how else to increase risk comparable return other than by leverage - borrowing to buy some more shares. You up your profit if it works, or lose more if it doesn't, but you may not have that option with the rules of your fund.

Albermarle

In case you were thinking of VERY high risk investments , where you could potentially lose everything , these are often unregulated and would not be available from a mainstream pension/SIPP provider in any case .