Im already putting regular savings in to an account, however at the moment I am having to take some out now and again.
Would it be ok starting off putting something like £30-£40 a month in a pension with the intention of raising it.
Not sure which pension company to look at
There is no minimum (well individual companies will have some minimums).
As said above don't put all your eggs in ny basket. Pension contributions barring a few very specific ways of accessing are ring fenced away for your retirement, neither you nor the government can get their hands on them before you retire, so "safe" but unaccessable.
Your first port of call should be your employer, how large are they, if they are big they should be already planning to enroll you late this year (think its Oct).
You want to look at fund fees and historic performance. Obviously historic performance isnt a guarantee of future success and fund managers can change. You then need to decide on your view on risk, there will be options on how risky you want to play it, generally risk = return. My fund for example takes 0.4% per annum, deducted monthly, so 0.4%/12 per month. Its made about 2% so far this year after fees, not bad really. I am in a balanced risk level so no excessively high or low. Going too low too early will affect your long term gains, when I get closer to retirement I will move to lower risk when I am happy with the fund value, Ie a move to more sustaining approach as opposed to a growth approach.
The previous problems with Pensions are mainly based around different factors for final salary schemes, ie the old "normal" company pension scheme and for investment "personal" schemes.
Company schemes had/have funding issues due to longer life expectancy predominantly but also some investment return issues. Plus a FEW publicised issues such as "that newspaper guy"
Personal schemes suffered the same as lots of other investments, eg endowments it that many were based on too optimistic conditions and hence failed to meet expectations.
A personal scheme is yours and yours only, you have the control over it based on your criteria within limitations.
Be careful about using an IFA, some will take high charges. Unless your planning very high investments or after something very "special" you may be much better going to one of the big providers and doing something yourself. Eg Aviva, NU, AXA etc
Your money is a weekly prog on BBC, sat afternoon but you can see older episodes online. They did a bit a while back showing that some IFAs can charge upto 50% of the amount for a one off payment into a pension scheme. Its not controlled and you need your wits about you as to the charges etc they may apply. Well worth looking to see how many back episodes you can find as they are typically about ISAs, Pensions, Debt etc
