Vanguard life stratergy

madlyn

Last year I opened a Vanguard LS 60/40 ISA and Pension.
The pension is pre retirement fund accumulation, the ISA is also fund accumulation.
I made an initial deposit of £500 in each and done nothing since, I was attracted to the fact that once opened it can be left and apart from checking there progress occasionally they can just be left. although last month I did set up a regular monthly payment into each account.
So do I really just sit back and let them do their thing?

Linton

Both funds are intended to look after themselves with zero intervention required.   Though making more contributions to your pension is almost always a good idea.

However I suggest you check what your pre-retirement fund does.   It may steadily move into bonds with the intention of ensuring your pension pot wont collapse in value when you buy an annuity.  However you may well plan to draw-down rather than buy an annuity.  If that is the case then you will robably be invested for decades and not want to move 100% into low return funds at the point of pretirement.  Also you may not be planning to retire at the same date as the one driving the pre-retirement fund.

Albermarle

Have you a pension with your job? if you have one? Or are you maybe self employed ?

Just to be clear the amount you can add to a pension and get tax relief, is related to how much you earn.

madlyn

I am not self employed, and I do pay into my work place pension, I also have a private pension which I contribute to on a monthly basis.

Albermarle

madlyn said:

I am not self employed, and I do pay into my work place pension, I also have a private pension which I contribute to on a monthly basis.

If your employer operates a salary sacrifice scheme for pension contributions, then it is better to increase your workplace contributions than contribute to a separate pension. If they do not operate this scheme, then it does not matter.
Are you aware of how your workplace pension is invested, assuming it is a standard DC scheme and not a final salary scheme? ( sometimes this gets forgotten/ignored but it is important ) 

madlyn

It is a DC scheme and I pay the max % each month.

Albermarle

madlyn said:

It is a DC scheme and I pay the max % each month.

Are you saying that your employer restricts how much you can put in ? that would be quite unusual, but not unheard of.

Anyway the main point is that you keep up to date with how this workplace pension is invested, and how it is performing, Presumably it is much bigger than the new SIPP & ISA you have opened, so more important, 

madlyn

Yes, they do limit how much, and yes it is bigger, been there 5 years and started to pay as soon as I was allowed to.