investing in 2023

dannybbb

@prism
thanks - , my income is likely to fall significantly next year  so  i think ill be making abig contribution this year  and that might be it. I do have a mortgage free small proprty thats also producing income and have seen that as my pension  but after todays helpful replies i think ill go back to a pension - i opened an evestor account but then saw the poor reviews so will do some more research

LHW99

It sounds as if a plain world index tracker might suit - you could have a look at https://monevator.com/best-global-tracker-funds/ but note they talk about ETF's as well as "standard-type" funds. Either is fine, but ETF's are a bit harder to understand the details of IMO.

You can buy all these in a SIPP platform such as (eg) Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Interactive Investor (there are others).

There is also the Vanguard platform SIPP, but they will only let you buy their own Vanguard brand funds.

Millyonare

Pensions are like magic. A UK employee (in the right tax code) can turn £30k into £60k in 1 minute with the click of an Internet button. There is no other (legal) investment on Earth as good as that!

Sarahspangles

dannybbb said:

@sarahspangles thanks for that, did you take any advice or just self manage. Given my financial greenness I worry about picking funds.

my income is likely to take a significant drop next year so im probably best place to get a pension sorted this tax year to take advantage of any relief.

It depends what you call 'self-managing'.

I had some great advice from the Pensions board, they recommended a website called Monevator where there are tables listing pros and cons of the different platforms, plus a book called DIY Pensions by John Edwards which is a fairly easy read. This persuaded me that buying shares in individual companies would be a bit too 'exciting' so I should stick to funds initially. 

I'm not making a recommendation but I chose AJ Bell because their charging structure for a SIPP would work for me. I transferred in an old workplace pot and a contribution of 'fresh money'. You get 2% to 2.75% interest on your cash while you dither about what to invest in! 

AJ Bell have a tab with investment ideas - you can follow a 'path' and narrow down your choices. This bit felt quite 'personal' in the end - my initial portfolio is 40% a 'responsible growth' fund and 40% an 'adventurous' one as I can handle some risk. From the options in the groups I chose the ones where I liked the 'blurb' about the fund objectives. [Edited to add - in case I sound like an airhead - I only went with options after checking they performed well in their class etc but you have to do something to differentiate when they are otherwise very similar]

I also have 20% in a money market fund that might beat cash savings. It takes a while for the taxman's money to arrive, when it does I will probably trade in the money market fund and contribute more fresh money to buy another chunk of a fund. 

That's where I've got to so far and I'm now reading DIY Simple Investing. 

The way I look at it, if I have definitely made a mistake then I've missed out on some growth in my portfolio but so long as trading costs and fees are low then I can change tack. But not after a day or two or even a month of falls, it's important not to tinker.

If I'd got round to doing this a year earlier, I'd have had 8.3% growth compared to the 3.6% on my old workplace pension pot, which I know is at least partly down to charges by that provider.

ColdIron

dannybbb said:

48 with no pension

A pension does seem to suggest itself, the tax relief alone makes them attractive

dannybbb

@Sarahspangles thanks for the detailed reply.

maybe in future ill have the time to get so into it but i think i would have to go with a managed fund at the start

i feel a bit stupid as ive had a large amount of cash sitting round for so many years. im getting 3-5% now but for many years have been getting nothing. I dread to think the amount of growth i have lost

eskbanker

dannybbb said:

i feel a bit stupid as ive had a large amount of cash sitting round for so many years. im getting 3-5% now but for many years have been getting nothing. I dread to think the amount of growth i have lost

There's no point in beating yourself up about past mistakes - the important thing is to make the right decisions going forward!

oz0707

Is nobody going to mention the restrictions on accessing the money in a pension to the OP? Not disputing they are a good idea

jimjames

oz0707 said:

Is nobody going to mention the restrictions on accessing the money in a pension to the OP? Not disputing they are a good idea

Age 48, it's not exactly long term to access them. Rather different age 20

oz0707

good point suppose it aligns with appropriate investment time