Trying to understand pension changes and feeling out of my depth

Cobbler_tone

NickPoole said:

Cobbler_tone said:

NickPoole said:

Bostonerimus1 said:

NickPoole said:

Let me ponder. I sort of wanted a FTSE tracker fund anyway and it being cheaper does tempt me. Understand that a crash will hit it harder than the Multi Asset fund and also that any recovery might take years!

I don't have to actually do anything except think about it at the moment.

How much is the US index tracker..?

Just take a couple of days to read up on portfolio construction and asset allocation. You need to understand how risk and return should be balanced against the time you plan to be invested and your circumstances, ie still working, approaching retirement or already retired. Here's a starting point...

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investing_from_the_UK

Cost - I prefer to pay as little as possible!

I don't think that should be a main focus, otherwise stick it in 'cash fund 3' for 0.09%

I guess what I am saying is I want as big as gain as possible for as low cost and smallest risk as I can get. Which is obvious. If I switch it will be to a tracker fund but I'd need to be sure I could sit out drastic market corrections that could take several years to recover. If there is a big crash it will also affect the Multi Asset Fund after all. But not the ISAs!

With the greatest respect you are 66 and not 26. It sounds as though your core income is already set and you are focusing on the final  'excess' money to access. You have a few choices. You could drawdown, sticking it in something high risk and get a year or two extra or a year or two less, depending how it performs.
You could do a fixed term annuity to stay under the 40% bracket (which would be sensible) and forget about it, making it 'crash proof'. If you want to keep 'playing' then choose one with a maturity value. You could buy a lifetime annuity but it doesn't sound as though you want that. I think you are pushing for some optimum strategy which doesn't exist. You could pay someone to do it for you but then you'll be wondering if you could have returned more, or wasted money.
The best advice is to pick your route and enjoy it, you've done the hard work. I'd personally remove the hassle factor judging by the sound of how view things.

NickPoole

Thank you cobbler-tone

I was responding to the question about how I decided not to switch to Target Date fund (charges) and we not unnaturally started to discuss the factors, risk and performance. I'm well aware that I am already well set up and we are playing about at the edges - I suspect I'll leave money in multi asset fund (drawdown) after taking any tax free cash - as you say I could put it all in equities and it would go up and down more. But although it would be galling if its value plummeted I'd still be all right.

I prefer the idea of drawdown to annuity - I'm not sure how I could decide value of annuity to keep me under 40% threshold without knowing future value of pensions and thresholds

Cobbler_tone

NickPoole said:

I prefer the idea of drawdown to annuity - I'm not sure how I could decide value of annuity to keep me under 40% threshold without knowing future value of pensions and thresholds

You could set it a couple of grand under the 40% and as it would be relatively short term you'd stay out of that bracket. More so if you choose one with a maturity rate and then you can review. I'm facing a similar situation.