The moment pay-day rolls around, the order of priorities is typically the same: bills and expenses first, with the remainder divided into spending money, savings and investments.
For those in the PAYE system, one thing that is unlikely to be a worry is pension saving, which is ensured via auto-enrolment schemes, where a percentage of an employee’s salary is paid into a workplace pension – with the employer also contributing.
It is a system that works because most people don’t even have to think about it: you are in unless you choose to opt out.
For the self-employed, that infrastructure doesn’t exist. Instead, the responsibility to file the tax return, manage cashflow and plan for retirement falls entirely on the individual.
With so much to think about, it is all too easy for the longest-term goal – saving for retirement – to fall to the bottom of the list.
This is proving to have consequences. Earlier this year, a report by the Pensions Commission noted that just 4% of self-employed workers save consistently for retirement, meaning the vast majority are risking retiring into poverty.
As previously covered by Trustnet, the advice to the self-employed is clear: invest whatever you can whenever you can to secure your future when you decide to retire.
With this in mind, Trustnet asked Kate Marshall, acting head of fund research at Hargreaves Lansdown, to suggest a portfolio for a self-employed investor – one designed to work hard over the long-term.
Turning to Hargreaves Lansdown’s Strategic Asset Allocation model, Marshall noted that 81% of a portfolio should be allocated to developed market equities – including an 8% allocation to the UK – alongside 10.5% in emerging markets and 8% in global smaller companies.
In addition to highly personal factors that come into play for any individual saving for their retirement, such as age, income, existing assets and retirement goals, Marshall emphasised the importance of keeping investment costs under control when building the pension pot.
“This can make a significant difference over time, as lower charges leave more of any returns invested and compounding for the future,” she said.
As such, the portfolio in the table below aims to provide consistent and compounding returns to build an individual’s pension pot in a more cost-effective way.
Source: FE Analytics
“This allocation is designed for an investor with a long time horizon and a willingness to accept the higher risks associated with an all-equity portfolio,” Marshall said.
Marshall first suggested investing 73% in Legal & General International Index Trust – a global tracker providing broad exposure to thousands of companies across all major developed economies, bar the UK.
“A global tracker helps to keep costs down while forming a core holding,” she said.
The £8.3bn index fund tracks the FTSE World (ex UK) index and has been managed by Hailey Choi since 2014 – supported by Jason Forster. It has an ongoing charges figure (OCF) of 0.13%.
It currently houses roughly a quarter of the fund’s assets in the top 10 holdings – and every single one of them can be considered a growth-intensive AI-related play, including Nvidia, TSMC and Microsoft.
It should be noted that, although it is technically a global fund, over two-thirds is skewed to the US at around 67%.
To ensure some UK exposure, Marshall selected the global tracker’s stablemate – Legal & General UK Index Trust, a £7.6bn passive strategy led by Jason Forster, with Konstantins Golovnovs as deputy manager. It has an OCF of 0.10%.
It tracks the FTSE All-Share, meaning it is predominantly exposed to the largest 350 companies in the UK, which are better shielded from the weaker domestic economy due to diversified international revenues. It offers exposure to well-known defensive UK names, such as banking group HSBC, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and oil producer Shell.
Marshall then turned to emerging markets and small-caps to “add diversification and enhance long-term growth potential” – allocating 8% a piece.
For emerging markets, she picked the JPM Emerging Markets. The £3.1bn fund is co-managed by Austin Forey, Leon Eidelman and John Citron and targets capital growth over the long-term, utilising a fundamental, bottom-up stock selection process to identify high-quality companies with superior and sustainable growth potential.
JPM Emerging Markets’ highest geographic allocations are currently South Korea, China and Taiwan, with information technology the most allocated to sector.
As the fund is actively managed, it is also more expensive, with an OCF of 1.14%. However, the additional cost has translated into performance, as the JP Morgan strategy has logged a top-quartile return in the IA Global Emerging Markets sector over one, three and 10 years, gaining 157.3% over the decade ending in July 2026 after fees.
For small-caps, Marshall’s pick is Vanguard Global Small-Cap Index Fund, an $8.3bn passive strategy launched in 2010. With an OCF of 0.29%, it is the most expensive passive strategy she picked for the portfolio. It tracks the performance of the MSCI World Small Cap index.
Although small-caps have struggled over the past few years, the fund gained 23.5% for the year ending July 2026, beating the 14.8% IA Global sector average.
“Emerging markets and smaller companies have historically delivered strong long-term returns, albeit with greater ups and downs along the way, so investors should bear the risks in mind,” Marshall noted.
Alternatively, for investors less comfortable taking significant stock market risk, who may have a shorter time horizon until retirement, Marshall said they should consider entrusting their pension money to the £4.2bn BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced fund, which is managed by Bhavin Shah, Paul Flood and Simon Nichols.
“Multi-asset funds combine shares, bonds and cash within a single investment, offering a simpler route to diversification and a potentially smoother journey for investors who don’t need – or want – a portfolio focused predominantly on growth,” she said.
With an OCF of 0.68%, the BNY strategy was one of the most-bought multi-asset funds in 2025, adding £260.7m in net new money while performance added a further £409.5m.
In the first half of 2026, BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced gained 6.8%, falling short of the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector average of 7.6%.