New Job means new Pension

Rural_Life

New job so I've been enrolled in a new pensions scheme: Smart Pension

Don't know too much about this company so currently digging into them but I have a choice of investment funds and looking at people's thoughts. I do like higher risk as I'm 25 years away from retirement so plenty time for peeks and troughs. Can also assign different % contribution to any funds I choose.

What would be your choice? Mix n match?

Aylesbury_Duck

If it were me and I had a pension fund mix from a previous employment I had chosen and was happy with, I'd try and replicate it. See what the fund mix is in terms of equity/bonds/cash/other and where it sits in terms of geographical and sector representation, and see if you can approximate it with one or more of these funds.

AI would be able to do a lot of the legwork when it comes to summarising any current pension mix and suggesting how it might be replicated (rather than you trawling through all the fund factsheets), but sense-check anything it recommends because in my experience doing similar, it makes the odd mistake.

DRS1

The names mean nothing to me - you should dig deeper to see what they actually invest in and where. For example does the Developed Equity fund invest in the USA? If so you would not want to combine that with the North America Fund.

What do the Blended Funds blend together? Is it just equities and bonds or do you get other stuff like gold property and cash. Is that something which might be attractive if you thinks equities are over valued at the moment.

Also have a look at the Sharia Fund. I suggest that only because a Sharia Fund has been mentioned on here as doing well in the past. But that is probably because it has a lot of US and tech stock. Again is that something you want to put money into now?

Maybe avoid the Smart Active Impact Fund - sounds like something for the youngsters.

ali_bear

I think you answered your own question when you said you like high growth/risk, since you are relatively far from retirement. Keep investing regularly, and change the allocation depending on what you guess is good value now and/or going to perform well in the coming years. The eye gravitates towards:

Smart Growth - higher risk

Smart Equity UK

Smart Equity Ex-UK

Smart Equity Emerging Markets

At the moment I would avoid putting money into USA equities because they look overvalued at present. But in the long term USA equities are dynamic and a good bet for growth.

You can mix and match UK and non-UK equities depending on how you feel the UK is likely to grow relative to RoW. UK has done well over the last year or so, but in the future?

Emerging markets are probably higher risk.

Obvious disclaimer applies to any advice you would take from a grumpy cave-dweller.

Albermarle

Normally a high equity % fund is recommended when you are decades away from retirement ( say 75% to 100% equities) However you have to be aware these funds could drop significantly at any time, but on the bright side as you will be contributing regularly you can then be buying when values are low.

Ideally it should be a globally diversified fund as well.