Question No. 2

"Why Would You Want To Manage Your Own Pension?"

Response

The answer to this question may seem obvious.  And that answer is, because you want to maximise your retirement savings.

But let's kick this response off with a statement of fact.

Fact:  Most Fund Managers fail to beat the markets that they are attempting to beat.

That fact amazed us when we first read it.

But it convinced us even more, as if we ever needed convincing, that giving your retirement savings to some high fee paying Fund management was not the way to go.

"Why You Can Beat The Professionals"

Here's how we see it.

Funds try to shadow an Index, let's suppose that Index is the Dow Jones 30 (DJ30).  They will invest in all 30 of the constituent shares of that index, maybe not equally but most probably a weighting of all 30 shares.

If the Fund was based on the FTSE100 or even the S&P500 then even more individual shares would be invested in.  That is, 100 shares and 500 shares respectively.

But for us amateur investors, we can't invest in that many shares but we can pick and choose which shares we like. 

And instead of throwing our money at all 30 of those companies we might only choose to invest in 12 or 15 of them, or less.

For sure, some of those 30 companies will under-perform.  Fund managers have to include them or they wouldn't mirror the underlying Index.

But us poor amateurs have a terrific advantage.  We don't have to mirror the Index (we want to BEAT the Index), we just do our research and pick the best ones.

That's how we can beat the professionals.

But will we?

If you do your research as laid out on this website, chances are, you will beat the Funds.  And by some margin.

"Don't Be a Passive Investor"

It's not then a case of investing in those shares and walking away. They need monitoring.  And you also need to be always on the look out for more companies that fit in with your model.

Just holding the shares and doing nothing is not the greatest idea.

We cannot imagine being passive retirement investors.  We're just not wired that way.

Wanting to maximise your income before, and during, retirement should obviously be everyone's desire but we fully understand that most people wouldn't have the confidence at first, to go it alone.

But that confidence will come.

Develop that quality, then the sky really is the limit.

Look at it this way: why retire with a Pension Pot of £100K when it could be £500K?

Bet that got your attention!

Follow and understand everything on this website, and that's exactly what could happen to you.

It really is Common Sense.

Get past that initial learning curve and there's no telling where you could land.  You will start to see the performance of your DIY pension in an entirely different light.

You may only have a dozen or so investments in your portfolio but to do it right, you will look at them every day (or at least, every week) to see how they are performing.

You'll already have a core list of "value" shares (your watch list) and discover new ones along the way.  But once you have established this core list your only decisions will be when to buy them and when to sell them.

And, the whole theme of this website is not about buying and selling frequently but buying at the right time and selling at the right time.  That means, not over-trading.

Once you begin to see phenomenal growth in your Pension Pot, we guarantee you'll be hooked.

Conclusion

Managing your DIY Pension is maybe not for everyone.  It does take up some of your time.

But if you have at the back of your mind a figure of how much you'll need when you retire then that will spur you on.

Say to yourself (even even if you've started retirement saving late in life): "why retire with a Pension Pot of £100K when it could be £500K?"

Over a 20 or 30 year period that's the sort of difference you could be talking about.

Take a modest amount of time to look after your own Pension Pot . You'll be so glad you did.

Footnote

As a newbie, you may want to read the other "Frequently Asked Questions" on this website.  Doing so, will give you a good introduction to running your own DIY Pension.

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