Noob help needed: Outdated pension & where to go?

[Boots]

So a few questions if anyone is still willing to help:

1) I'd like to dump 10k in within the next few days, partly because it's my business year end shortly and i'd like that to go on these accounts. Would it be considered unwise to just do a lump sum at the moment or should i really be pacing that out to spread risk.

2) any feedback on those funds? I know folks can't give advice, but would it be considered really weird to just put everything in VWRP?

3) In terms of platforms to me it seems between interactive investor and vanguard. The fees are more or less to the pound the same for the first few years; interactive investor does have a little cashback scheme at the moment but i wouldnt really want to let that be the thing that swayed me, and its only £100 for my initial lump unless i can arrange for the whole transfer of my pension to be done by end of month and although ive done done that before from what i can see it takes cooperation from existing pension folks who said even just doing a payment would take a week.

4) And finally my wife and I currently have the exact same pensions set up, and all payments are mirrored going into them. At the time i believe the IFA said this was more efficient with tax, but at the time we were both sole traders. Now we are both company directors, so all pension contributions are made by the company. Therefore I'm thinking of just merging both pensions into one for simplicity - can two transfers from different people even be merged into the one, and is it even recommended or are there other reasons why its good to have them separate?

Thanks!

Here's my thoughts:

1) You can open a SIPP and transfer the lump sum to sort out your tax position for the year end - but hold the money as cash in the SIPP until you have made your mind up. As far as I understand you can hold the cash for as long as you like - it won't pay a great interest rate, but that isn't the point.

2) Sorry, but I think choosing funds is putting the cart before the horse, and you did say you had got a bit carried away in the past. Sorry also to bang on, but I would still recommend Smarter Investing by Tim Hale to give you the background before you start choosing what to invest in.

3) I have an Interactive Investor account (but an ISA, not a SIPP). They are cheap. But personally I rather hate them (and I know there are others on this forum with similar views). The interface is rather painful to use; they make changes quite frequently, so you often lose access at the weekend, and when it comes back it looks a bit different; also when you sell something, you have to wait for it to clear before you can buy the next thing.

I also have a Hargreaves Lansdown account (ISA and SIPP) and I find this much easier to use. Now people will say they are expensive (and they can be) but if you are buying ETFs instead of Funds (and you do need to resist HLs marketing machine to do this) the costs can be manageable. For example, my son has an HL SIPP of a similar size to yours, invested solely in ETFs, the costs are £200 per year (the cap for annual ETF charges in an HL SIPP) or 0.3%. This percentage will keep coming down as further money is added to the SIPP as he will do, and I suspect you will too.

4) Not really my area.

[DrFfybes]

Putting lump sums in at once or in portions over a year or two is a perennial question
It probably pays to do it all at once especially if it’s not going to be touched for 10+ years

Personally I opt for the "drip feed" option. 2 years ago I got an inheritance, and put a large amount into BRKB and VEVE (the Vanguard Developed World tracker ETF). Putin was posturing on the Ukraine border, and each week I bought £10k chunks of each share. Had I bought it all on week 1 I would have been quite a bit worse off, had I done it all on week 3 or 4 (I think) I would have been a lot better off. However by spreading it I neither won nor lost, which stops me kicking myself for mistiming it, and from what the OP says about their mental state it would sit better with them as well.

Paul

[dilby]

2) Sorry, but I think choosing funds is putting the cart before the horse, and you did say you had got a bit carried away in the past. Sorry also to bang on, but I would still recommend Smarter Investing by Tim Hale to give you the background before you start choosing what to invest in.

Thanks - in my head this was me choosing the most simple fund and not getting carried away, but if this is still risky then I'm happy to hold fire. In this case I'm thinking this is my best plan which I'm going to sleep on:

Open a vanguard managed pension; this is still the SIPP platform but you may a .30% management fee for them to sort it out for you. A tad high but realistically my pot isn't huge at the moment, and I'm going to follow the advice here and do some reading and then open up a second sipp pension where I play with a smaller amount with tracker funds to find my feet and confidence and go from there. To me the vanguard platform itself appeals the most, so getting into that ecosystem makes sense and doing it this way seems a good balance between taking action but being cautious.

In terms of the lump sum i'm going to talk to accountant tomorrow (had trouble getting him today) and perhaps its not so vital that i make such a large payment before the year end, but will take that as it comes. After some consideration i would like to space those payments out a little.

Hoping that sounds like a logical move to you kind folks!

[Alaric]

In terms of the lump sum i'm going to talk to accountant tomorrow (had trouble getting him today) and perhaps its not so vital that i make such a large payment before the year end, but will take that as it comes. After some consideration i would like to space those payments out a little.

SIPPs should be sufficiently flexible so that the timing of the contribution can be divorced from the timing of the investment. For reasons of taxation and contribution limits, you may wish to have the money inside the SIPP before April 5th, or possibly after, but you can move it out of cash into the investment choices at your leisure.

[TUK020]

2) Sorry, but I think choosing funds is putting the cart before the horse, and you did say you had got a bit carried away in the past. Sorry also to bang on, but I would still recommend Smarter Investing by Tim Hale to give you the background before you start choosing what to invest in.

Thanks - in my head this was me choosing the most simple fund and not getting carried away, but if this is still risky then I'm happy to hold fire. In this case I'm thinking this is my best plan which I'm going to sleep on:

Open a vanguard managed pension; this is still the SIPP platform but you may a .30% management fee for them to sort it out for you. A tad high but realistically my pot isn't huge at the moment, and I'm going to follow the advice here and do some reading and then open up a second sipp pension where I play with a smaller amount with tracker funds to find my feet and confidence and go from there. To me the vanguard platform itself appeals the most, so getting into that ecosystem makes sense and doing it this way seems a good balance between taking action but being cautious.

In terms of the lump sum i'm going to talk to accountant tomorrow (had trouble getting him today) and perhaps its not so vital that i make such a large payment before the year end, but will take that as it comes. After some consideration i would like to space those payments out a little.

Hoping that sounds like a logical move to you kind folks!

Take a look at the Monevator website
https://monevator.com/
Suggest you read the pages on passive investing, creating a retuirement plan, and broker comparison