On 24/02/2012 09:19, Dave Liquorice wrote:
....
(*) Don't start me on pensions. I know that a pension is in the far
far distant future but money shoved in now can grow for 40+ years. If
there is still a state retirement age (or indeed a state pension) by
the time you get there it may well be 70 or 75, that's well over 50+
years... If you can afford £10/month now (the cost of just a few
pints) it will be money well used.

I would wholeheartedly agree. I started my first pension scheme at age
19, after working out what the state pension would buy. That is one of
the reasons I now have a pension that many people would be happy to have
as a salary.

Get advice from an *independant*
Financial Advisor as to the best place to put it. I don't know if a
pension fund or a stocks and shares ISA both with a
"cautious/balanced" spread of investments would be best.

I would suggest putting a small proportion into higher risk investments.
Given a good enough spread, which your advisor should arrange, the gains
will outweigh the losses. I put 10% of one pension fund into a high risk
investment fund. Over 10 years it averaged 17% growth, which was
considerably more than anything else offered. The funds that worked
actually achieved 25% growth, but that was reduced by the losses. Note:
this is not an option for anyone who frightens easily or who does not
realise that you need to take a very long term view of pensions investments.

With the ISA
you can still get at the funds, not so easy to get at the money in a
pension fund, nothing to stop you moving money from an ISA to a
pension in 10 - 20 years time.

There is something to be said for not being able to get at your pension
fund, even in times of need.

Colin Bignell