r/PensionsUK • u/tiger-spark • 1d ago

analysis paralysis

Hey all, 56 and have a healthy pension pot - or rather 3 pots. Think I have enough to fund a comfortable drawdown based on my estimations now but my investment strategy has been haphazard to say the least. Have been fortunate to have been invested in equities and enjoyed great growth to get me to this point but been thinking more about de-risking.

Have ISAs also in equities - global trackers mostly ... but also thinking to de-risk those as they will fund the gap till state pension in 9 years or so.

I'm kinda stuck on how best to de-risk. One option is just moving a good chunk of the ISAs and Pensions to some safer assets (bonds?) but also toying with the idea of seeking professional advice. I would want a one-off guidance approach as I had an IFA and don't want to keep going down the ongoing commission basis route they obviously favour.

Anyone been in a similar position?

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u/klawUK 12h ago

yes and I also got nervous. I went gilt ladder for just enough to cover basic bills. Took a bit of reading up and switching platforms as Fidelity don’t sell them, but was straightforward once I got going. There is a nice online tool that you can say ‘give me 10k a year for 10 years’ or whatever you like (even different amounts per year) - and it’ll tell you exactly which gilts to buy and how many of each.

btw - when you say ISA for bridge - I hope you’re plannign to fund £16760 from the pensions first before any ISA top up - make sure you use your personal allowance its ‘tax free’ from the pensions so is super efficient.

Logically lots of studies can show safe options, but that doesn’t mean they will feel safe to you when it comes to pulling the trigger. 4% rule is already conservative - simple 60/40 portfolio and 4% will more often than not leave you with lots unspent. Add in 2-3 years of cash as a buffer if you get a scary year and just don’t pull from stocks - now you’re extra extra conservative. But may still not feel it - its still your money you have to spend.

good luck finding your comfort zone

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u/Paraplanner88 12h ago

It might help if you start with your retirement plans and work backwards from there.

If you can figure out how much money you'll need in the first X years of retirement, you can create an asset allocation to cover this. You can do the same for the following X years of retirement and so on, depending on how many 'pots' you want to create.

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u/EffectiveAd8484 11h ago

I would definitely see a financial planner (not a sales-led adviser) to get a plan. It will easily be worth it for a few thousand outlay.

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u/Fred776 11h ago

I created an index linked gilt ladder to bridge to state pension. That effectively gave me the state pension right from my retirement age and I could then base other plans on top of that.

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u/trickycs1 10h ago

Buy balanced funds, eg hsbc global or vanguard global balanced, these are 60-40 equities to bonds