Out of money to invest in Bitcoin? Now you can track it in your pension!

Like many millennials I wish I had a bit more cash to invest in Bitcoin, only then would I be the next Warren Buffet. So my first thought was why can’t I use money from my pension to do this, obviously at 23 withdrawing the money was not an option. However, after some research it turns out I can already invest my pension in to Bitcoin using a tacker fund! And best thing is, if you have a Self Invested Personal Pension(SIPP) in the UK, you can too! To do this you will be investing in the: XBT Provider AB Bitcoin Tracker EUR

Please note if you are not a SIPP holder in the UK I would still recommend doing some research to see if any investment/pension providers for your country offer this tracker.

So your first question is probably, what is a tracker fund?

It is an exchange listed company thats objective is to track the price of an asset, in this case Bitcoin. The price is then reflected in the company’s share price as accurately as possible based on the underlying value of its holdings. As I don’t want to make this article too long, for more information on XBT Provider please visit their website https://xbtprovider.com/

So you have your investment selected, how do I we get it in my pension?

Well at the moment the only investment provider to offer the tracker to be held within a Pension is Hargreaves Lansdown(HL). Who Luckily just so happens to be my favourite investment provider in the UK. Plaese see their website for information: http://www.hl.co.uk/

Now most of you probably don't currently hold a SIPP with HL, but not too worry this is not a problem! We can transfer all or some of our SIPP from our current provider to HL, and yes that’s right you can have more than one SIPP. You can do this through a pension transfer from which is available on their website, once you have set up an account. After the form is complete it is a hands free process and just a case of patience and waiting for your current provider to release the monies. Once the money has been applied to your SIPP on HL all that is left to do is Invest, and hodl!

Some important sh*t before you go ahead

Before you go ahead I would like to make you aware of some of the pros and cons to investing in Bitcoin this way. I would also always advise you do your own research as is this reason I provide links. Anyway, below is my two cents:

• Whenever you transact in an exchange traded fund on HL you will be charged a fixed price of £11.95. Now this could be a pro or a con depending on how much you invest when comparing it against the network charge for a transaction in Bitcoin.

• You will be charged with an annual management fee of 2% of the value of your shares. This is standard practice for funds, however slightly on the expensive side. You can argue this is countered by the huge potential upside for bitcoin, and is likely to decrease over time as greater efficiency and competition enter the market.

• Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, however trades are only submitted when the listed exchange is open.

• You won’t receive any coins generated from a Bitcoin fork. I do not know if XBT Provider will collect the coins themselves then sell and reflect in the share price. I have contacted them for an answer on this and will update if I get a response.

• As your investment in Bitcoin will be held within a pension, as long as you follow UK guidelines on withdrawals it will be TAXFREE!!

• Lastly when investing through your pension, you are likely to have a different perspective on your investment in Bitcoin. As you are unable to access the funds in the near future (for most of us), you will be less likely to make short term based decisions, and forget the number one rule to Bitcoin hodl!

So we may not actually hold the coins in our pensions just yet, but at the moment I believe this is the best alternative for those who want exposure to add Bitcoin to their retirement portfolio.

If you found this useful please follow me as more useful tips to come. Please a let me know if there is anything you think this I've missed here, or could be added.

Any questions please let me know, and I will be happy to help.

Cheers!