Self-employed looking to start a pension

ClaraSolis

After losing my job during Covid in 2021, I have changed careers and become self-employed. But that means I now have to try to save up for my own pension, of course. 
I don't know too much about pension funds and investing, so I am really just looking for something that is quite easy. I don't have an awful lot of money to put away either, but I figured it would be better to have something (no matter how little) rather than nothing at all. 

Because I want it to be fairly simple, I was thinking about apps like Pensionbee or Nutmeg. I don't know if these are any good? Or if they even offer the same thing? 

I noticed that Chase currently have an offer where if you sign up to Nutmeg through them and invest £1000 by the 5th of April, you get £100 added to your account. This sounds like a nice little bonus, of course, so I am tempted by Nutmeg. Whereas before I was leaning towards Pensionbee (only because I had seen their adverts). 

As I mentioned, I don't know much about pension saving, but would signing up to one of these be a good thing? Or is there something else I should be looking at that's easy enough to figure out?

Thanks for any advice, I'm unsure where to start exactly, so I appreciate any tips.

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79909216/#Comment_79909216

What pension provision do you already have?

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

ClaraSolis

xylophone said:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79909216/#Comment_79909216

What pension provision do you already have?

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Thank you for the link. I know I've had a look at Vanguard before, but it seemed a bit daunting to me!

I have one pension from my first job with Royal London, but I think there's only about £500 in it (they started it right before I left).
Then I have another pension with Smartpension from my previous job, which has a few thousand pounds in it. I am actually still waiting for part of my pension contributions to be added. The company became insolvent and I've been spending hours upon hours to claim my redundancy, notice pay etc. Still waiting for about £1800 in missing pension payments but the insolvency agency isn't being very helpful...

As for the state pension, it says if I contribute for another 24 years I should get the maximum of £185.15 per week. I am not sure what to do with this haha.

Albermarle

Probably you could just continue to add to the Smartpension if you wanted to, although you will need to check with them first. 
One good point is that it is relatively easy to set up a new pension and to transfer most pensions.
The tricky bit is knowing what to invest in within the pension.

Because I want it to be fairly simple, I was thinking about apps like Pensionbee or Nutmeg. I don't know if these are any good? Or if they even offer the same thing? 
Most modern pension providers have a good website and an associated app. As you are not confident/knowledgeable it is recommended you use the websites rather than the apps, to begin with anyway. They tend to have more info and it is easier to understand what you are doing, hopefully.
Both these are relatively easy to use. Nutmeg are a robo advisor, from a few questions they will guide you to a suitable investment fund. Although you pay a bit more than average for the service.