My SIPP and ISA investing goals for 2026

For the first time in more than a decade, I will have maximised my annual individual savings account (ISA) allowance when the tax year ends on 5 April.

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To be clear, this isn’t down to a monster pay bump or aggressive frugality akin to FIRE (financial independence, retire early) savers. But rather because I sold my home and am short-term renting while I await the new property purchase to complete, which should happen in the next couple of months. I needed to find a temporary home for the realised equity and had some ISA allowance spare. The remainder has been parked elsewhere.

So, in terms of ISA funding between now and tax year end, there’s nothing more for me to do. My £20,000 limit for 2025-26 has been split between various equity strategies and a money market fund, with holdings in the latter ready to be deployed once the property transaction goes through.

However, as experienced investors will know, there’s more to managing an investment portfolio than filling up tax-wrapped accounts every year. I view my ISAs (both stocks & shares and cash types) and pensions as part of a single financial plan instead of separate components. And the start of a calendar year presents an ideal time to lift the bonnet on my investments and check things are in working order, reassessing the strategies against my goals in light of any changes to circumstances.

Here, I run through the key considerations for my pensions and ISAs in 2026.

Top up pension or keep the money liquid?

Although there’s no room for further ISA funding this tax year, I could funnel spare cash into my pension. The annual allowance for pensions is hearty. I can contribute the lower of £60,000 or 100% of earnings and get relief at my marginal rate of income tax.

The conundrum is whether I’ll need these funds for the home move. Costs have already racked up higher than planned and I want to avoid eating into my emergency fund shortly after getting the keys. Furthermore, I already have a generous workplace pension which, combined with my other savings, should put me roughly on track to achieve the retirement lifestyle I want. However, I’m acutely aware that things may not pan out as expected, and any extra funding today will gain the greatest benefit from compound returns.

So, for this tax year I’ll resist paying any lump sums into my pension. Liquidity and accessibility for this cash is the core priority right now, and I’m still well over a decade away from age 57, the earliest point that I can access my pension savings. And even then, I don’t plan to draw anything until I hit mid-to-late 60s.

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The size of the pension annual allowance means I can always add a bigger contribution the following tax year, once the calls on my short-term savings become clearer.

My stocks & shares ISA holdings will shrink when the home purchase completes as I need to drain the allocation to money market funds to foot the bill. These funds provide an ideal home to meet short-term needs, offering security and a cash-like return that’s currently beating inflation. As I hold them within an ISA, there’s no income tax to pay.

Keep up important habits

While I’ve maxed out this year’s ISA allowance, the £20,000 limit will reset once the new tax year begins on 6 April.

The Autumn Budget 2025’s red pages revealed that the annual ISA allowance will remain frozen until 2031. This offers certainty to investors; however, the deep freeze means the figure will have remained static for 14 years. I’d argue an increase to account for inflation is long overdue.

A further consideration is that the coming tax year will be the last time I can put the full £20,000 sum into cash ISAs. It’s reducing to £12,000 for under 65s from 6 April 2027. Will this present a problem for me? Not one that I can see presently. While I disagree with the decision to cut the cash ISA limit, as it makes the system rather untidy and more complicated, I’ve long believed the stocks & shares version offers the best opportunity to grow my wealth over extended periods. Historic performance – although not a guide to the future, as the risk warning goes – supports this assertion. Plus, I already hold enough in cash ISAs from previous tax years to fall back on should any curveballs emerge.

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As such, any future ISA contributions, including those in 2026-27, will be directed to the stocks & shares type. I currently pay a modest amount every month, which I pared back recently due to the impending property move, and add single contributions when I’m able to. My decision to drip feed money into the market rather than chuck in a lump sum helps to smooth out volatility, although the reality is I rarely have the means to be an early bird investor and commit cash at the start of the tax year. That’s because any surplus savings have typically been shunted into tax wrappers by the end of the previous one.

I will continue my existing monthly ISA contributions into the next tax year, potentially jacking them up once my immediate expenses are out of the way and I’ve adjusted to any changes to outgoings after moving home.

Time to broaden my investment strategy?

In previous articles I’ve stressed my preference for keeping things simple when investing for the long haul. In my ISA, I have a core fund, which is currently the Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity A Acc fund, to provide stability and global diversification at low cost. To complement this popular, passive strategy and to add some spice to my portfolio, I have a handful of satellite holdings, spanning racier areas such as global emerging markets, and UK small- and mid-caps.

The investing time frame for my ISA funds varies. Some of the cash I plan to access in roughly seven years’ time to coincide with a significant birthday which I aim to celebrate with a trip abroad. As this milestone draws closer, I may reduce risk within the funds allocated for this purpose but will assess my financial needs and position when the time arrives.

With the remaining funds, I’m taking an open-ended approach, hence the propensity for greater volatility and subsequently higher potential returns offered by more adventurous strategies.

I’ve always been wedded to equities for long-term goals, omitting other assets such as bonds and commodities. The recent plum performance of precious metals such as gold, and more recently silver, has piqued my interest in this area. For the moment, I’ll stick with the tried and tested strategy, which has served me well until now, but equally I’m becoming more open to the role commodities can play in my portfolio, especially for medium-term goals where a broader range of asset classes may come in handy.

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It’s possible I may raid some of my longer-term ISA funds before I retire, although more likely I’ll use them to supplement pension income in later life. The beauty of using ISAs here is the flexibility. Any growth and dividends are tax free, and crucially I can access the money whenever I want without penalty – unlike pensions where, as noted above, I must wait until age 57.

Let’s move on to the savings specifically geared up for retirement, where this year I plan to dip a toe into the unknown (for me, anyway).

Within my self-invested personal pension (SIPP), I have decided to spruce thing up in 2026 by purchasing a couple of single company stocks. Given my preference to be broadly hands off when managing my retirement portfolio, letting global trackers with low fees do the hard yards, I’ll start with small weightings. I remain open to beefing up positions over time but will see how things go. My focus remains on long-term growth rather than near-term wins.

The great thing about constructing a SIPP and ISA portfolio is that we have the carte blanche to do things as we see fit. While my strategy shifts as time goes on, my central aim is to keep shovelling money away, making the most of the attractive tax breaks on offer and choosing the most suitable tax-wrapped account for the specific goal I want to achieve.