Hi All,

Quite funny, typed in "Should I start a pension" in google on advance search for the last six months and it brought me here. All roads lead to HPC!!!

I'm thinking of starting a pension. Have my own one man band ltd company and been meaning to for while. I was wondering if it matters starting it in the middle of a stock market crash or whether it would be worth waiting until I see the bottom of the market.

FH

Me too, not sure about if now is a good time or not.

From guessing, you would want a good rate at the start, because contributions should rise later on but will have less time to mature ? , but waiting for any reason can't help matters unless it's a very short time like 3-6 months.

Probably best to start it asap and then increase contributions a bit later, possibly investing them elsewhere for now.

Start right now - stocks are prices much lower than a year ago so you will have a big advantage over those who were investing between 2005 and today.

Of course they can still drop a lot, but then you pay in a little amount every month and in the long term almost certainly the value of your investment will grow, provided you invest in right companies.

Do not go for any kind of stock market fund, the charge comissions and fees and statistically you have higher chances of better return by investing in stocks directly.

Do some research first and buy at least 5 different stocks, consider larger, boring companies that produce constant profits every year and pay high dividends year on year (cows), but invest also 20% of your monthly contributions in smaller companies that you feel are in the right sector. In this way you are covered in both scenarios - whether market goes down or if it recovers.

Good luck!

Deos is right.

Start now. You can't invest in a pension retrospectively (well you can, but it's v. expensive).

If you're young enough then you'll be buying some now, when stocks are low; some a bit later, when stocks are even lower; some a lot later when stocks are higher.

Over time it should average out.

But all the while you get the benefit of investing the money Before You Have Paid Income Tax. So, the treasury contributes (they don't actually give you the money - they just don't take quite as much from you).

Agree with everything you said, just wasn't sure about the advice on investment trusts/funds. I am putting most of my pension in foreign stocks via investment trusts. I would like to buy foreign stocks directly but does anyone know if you can do that through a normal stock broker like Barclays?

If I can buy direct I will. If not I will stick to investment trusts I guess.

actually if you are in a SIPP or otherwise you can hold onto your savings in low risk accounts until you are a higher rate taxpayer then leak them through to your pension, getting better tax relief and (to answer your q re: the cycle) better returns if you think you can identify the trough of the stockmarket cycle.

However this all changes if you have an employer contribution (which you can't retrospectively claim)

Starting a pension early is more important than actual timing. If you are drip feeding money in regular contributions I wouldn't worry, of more importance is the state of market when you come to retire and disinvest.