Quote ="Dally"The problem with that is you have to spend time handling your investments and it's easy to get things very wrong by poor discipline.
More generally, seems to me SIPPs are just another con - they line the pockets of IFAs when they advise switching out of insureance companies, of SIPP providers and in my case stockbrokers. The time I've paid all the fees, especially the 'brokers discretionary management fees it has been almost impossible to make positive, inflation adjusted growth over recent years (except this last year).
For most people, I guess the best possible is to decide what index you wish to track (eg FTSE 100 or whatever) and just invest in the lowest cost tracker fund. Then forget about it until about 10 years before retirement when you start to need to consider reducing exposure to shares.
The big problem with investment managers is they are only worth paying if the outperform the market. Despite all the hype, glossy brochures, "reguaralry top quartile" etc there is no empiraical evidence that they do. If I recall correctly, it would take 15 years straight outperformance of the market by a fund manager to be able to substantiate a claim of outperformance. There will be virtually no fund managers that have been in post that long. So all claims are just marketing drivel.
PS None of the above should be construed as advice!
PPS I kept a smaller part of my limited pension funds with an insurer and it has outperformed the SIPP.'"
It precisely the reason I said dont go into into it blind so you know what you are getting yourself into, be it trackers ,shares ot investment funds. If in the last year you invested in emerging markets then you will have lost out no doubt. If you invested in UK small caps then you will have made a tidy profit. Its all about having a spread of things in my opinion.
As you said in your first paragraph Dally you are right. Poor discipline will cost you.I researched things for about 12 months before I got my Sipp so I could fully understand what I was getting into.
