Self employed pension

stus_2

Hi all been self employed for a couple of years now and need to set up a pension. I have no idea where to start. There just seems so May choices. Any help much appreciated. 

xylophone

You might consider Vanguard using a Target Retirement Fund?

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/target-retirement-products

Albermarle

Firstly are you definitely self employed and not a Director of a very small company ( with you as the only employee) ? It makes a difference.

After that clarification , we could suggest a few of the simpler pension providers to get started with . 
Within each pension your money is actually in investments linked to the financial markets. So as well as picking the pension provider you need to pick the investments within the pension where your money will actually go. For inexperienced investors , there some that only offer limited choice which makes it easier.

The basic choice is between risk levels . High risk means it will go up and down a lot, but should grow well over the long term .
Low risk means more stability but less growth and medium risk is in the middle.
The younger you are the more risk you should take as you have longer to ride out any bumps in the road.

Marcon

Have a look at https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics and scroll down to the section 

Pension options for the self-employed

HHarry

Think of the pension as a container into which you can put things until you’re ready for retirement.

 There are many companies offering containers (pensions) most of which will do what you need.  It’s just a case of finding one with a fee structure that’s acceptable, a website that you get on with, etc.  Even then you can transfer between them if a better option comes along.  I use Charles Stanley & Vanguard, but there are many others such as Fidelity or Hargreaves Lansdown.

Once you’ve chosen your pension provider, you then need to choose what to put in your container, which is probably the trickier bit.  You could just put cash in, or buy some shares in a company, or buy a fund containing the shares of many companies.  That decision may depend on how long you’re going to be saving for, how mich risk you want to take, and whether you have any other pensions from historic jobs.