Is it a good time to put pension in higher risk option?

Workerdrone

LouP25 said:

I'm 32 now. I only just started investing, never thought of it before! (I know, a bit late, but better now, I'm glad I made  all those mistakes now than later). I work in tech sector, and I plan to retire maybe at 70 years old - no earlier than that. I also opened Freetrade account and bought some Adobe and Microsoft shares. As Workerdrone said,tech will rise, but there s n TTechnoogy fund in Aegon, there is just risk levels 1-5. I had it on 5, thinking that I am tolerable to high risk, which roved wrong during Covid andemic crash ))) I switched it to  Risk 4 yesterday, and  will leave it alone.

Regarding growing my pension pot, I am currently finding out by reading and watching  online, that I will be taxed more if I withdraw from pension that other investment platforms.  I am literally in the middle of researching this, but I stopped putting to Aegon for now just in case if I find a tax-free or lower tax withdrawal platform somewhere else.

All the  advice  above is SO valuable!!!! Much, much appreciated! 

I'm with Aegon, and I'm in a Technology fund. It may be the choice of default funds your pension allows, perhaps worth seeing if there is a way of selecting your own funds. I know my other BT work pension had a selection of default picks which I broke away from allowing me to select a much wider range of funds with my own risk levels.

Thrugelmir

Workerdrone said:

I suppose its arguable whether Technology funds are really as high risk in the modern world but they've certainly performed consistentley well over the period I've just left them to their own devices for.

All companies are exposed to risk of numerous kinds. That's the nature of business. History is littered with "technology" companies that ultimately fell by the wayside. The greatest risk currently is that technology companies fail to meet investors expectations of future profitability. 

LouP25

Workerdrone said:

LouP25 said:

I'm 32 now. I only just started investing, never thought of it before! (I know, a bit late, but better now, I'm glad I made  all those mistakes now than later). I work in tech sector, and I plan to retire maybe at 70 years old - no earlier than that. I also opened Freetrade account and bought some Adobe and Microsoft shares. As Workerdrone said,tech will rise, but there s n TTechnoogy fund in Aegon, there is just risk levels 1-5. I had it on 5, thinking that I am tolerable to high risk, which roved wrong during Covid andemic crash ))) I switched it to  Risk 4 yesterday, and  will leave it alone.

Regarding growing my pension pot, I am currently finding out by reading and watching  online, that I will be taxed more if I withdraw from pension that other investment platforms.  I am literally in the middle of researching this, but I stopped putting to Aegon for now just in case if I find a tax-free or lower tax withdrawal platform somewhere else.

All the  advice  above is SO valuable!!!! Much, much appreciated! 

I'm with Aegon, and I'm in a Technology fund. It may be the choice of default funds your pension allows, perhaps worth seeing if there is a way of selecting your own funds. I know my other BT work pension had a selection of default picks which I broke away from allowing me to select a much wider range of funds with my own risk levels.

I just found the pdf info on Technology fund at Aegon:
APPLE INC 16.5% Microsoft Corp 15.6% Nvidia Corp 5.1% Visa Inc-class A Shares 4.7% Paypal Holdings Inc 4.4% Asml Holding Nv 3.7% Adobe Inc 3.6% Mastercard Inc - A 2.6% Servicenow Inc 2.5% Taiwan Semiconductor-sp Adr 2.4%

WOW, these are the companies I actually started to invest on Freetrade, as I mentioned earlier in this chat. Apparently the fund charge is 1.01%, I don't know if  its good or bad, but I'll call Aegon tomorrow to switch me there. Looks like what I was looking for. Thank you for this

[Deleted User]

You really need to educate yourself before you start moving things around. Being so concentrated in one industry/jurisdiction means wild ups and downs, sometimes downs for long periods of time. Like decades. Given your actual behaviour in March 2020, this may not be a good idea.  On top of that you are working in tech and putting all your retirement savings into the same industry. Not wise. Learn about diversification. 

dunstonh

Tech fell by 90% 20 years ago.  It followed a boom period with PE Ratios on tech companies went massively high compared to the rest of the market.

Currently, most tech stocks have PE ratios that are significantly higher than the rest of the market.

LouP25

Deleted_User said:

You really need to educate yourself before you start moving things around. Being so concentrated in one industry/jurisdiction means wild ups and downs, sometimes downs for long periods of time. Like decades. Given your actual behaviour in March 2020, this may not be a good idea.  On top of that you are working in tech and putting all your retirement savings into the same industry. Not wise. Learn about diversification. 

thank you for your comment! But paypal, NVIDIA and APPLE are pretty different products, aren't they? I was thinking this is pretty diversified already. I guess I should add Coca-Cola and some bonds to my portfolio )))  (not that I understand bonds and isa at this stage)

Albermarle

LouP25 said:

Deleted_User said:

You really need to educate yourself before you start moving things around. Being so concentrated in one industry/jurisdiction means wild ups and downs, sometimes downs for long periods of time. Like decades. Given your actual behaviour in March 2020, this may not be a good idea.  On top of that you are working in tech and putting all your retirement savings into the same industry. Not wise. Learn about diversification. 

thank you for your comment! But paypal, NVIDIA and APPLE are pretty different products, aren't they? I was thinking this is pretty diversified already. I guess I should add Coca-Cola and some bonds to my portfolio )))  (not that I understand bonds and isa at this stage)

Diversified normally means being invested in funds that contain shares of hundreds or even thousands of different companies , involved in a myriad of activities , spread across the world . Most of these companies you will have never heard of .