I need a Pension...Where do I start?

[StainlessSeal]

I've recently become free-lance meaning that obviously, I no longer contribute to a pension scheme. I honestly have no idea how I even start with private pensions. Can anyone recommend a Dummy's guide/ website/ anything?!

Can you carry on paying into the pension you have with your past employment. I had a work Nest pension and when I stopped working I’ve carried on contributing.

What's an SIPP?

SIPP = Self Invested Personal Pension
It is a pension wrapper, where you can choose the investments inside it.
Vanguard SIPP is very easy to use, as they limit the choice of investments and they have some great low cost investment funds you can select, such as:
Lifestrategy 100% equity, Lifestrategy 80% equity (if you want some bonds/gilts in the mix), FTSE Global All Cap, FTSE Developed World ex-UK.

A video from 2021, a there may be something out of date but the principles apply.

Brilliantly helpful, thank you.

Does anyone know whether paying in to my NHS pension is possible (obviously I shall ask, but at this point I don't even know what the questions are!)

You don't necessarily need a SIPP - they were created for people who might want to invest in property or more complex financial instruments as well as plain old funds and shares. Personal pensions exist alongside SIPPs.

OP, if you're not able / don't want to continue investing in your existing employer pension, you will need to set up your own personal pension (SIPP or not). A pension is essentially a tax-advantageous 'wrapper' inside which you decide what to invest in - this could be stocks/shares, funds, property etc. You set up your pension via a platform e.g Vanguard.

Check the fees they charge first as with lower-performing funds, this can really eat into the growth your pension will make.

As already posted, the Meaningful Money podcasts are very helpful and do cover a lot of the questions you probably have.

Not Vanguard, you can only buy Vanguard funds 😉
Nothing necessarily wrong with them but their popular Lifestrategy funds are overweight with UK investments, so if you want a truly global fund/funds you would have to build your own portfolio with individual VG funds as The UK only accounts for 6% of the Global market.
I’m with Hargreaves lansdown, not the absolute cheapest platform but have the full range of funds and is user friendly with good customer service.
I have low cost global trackers with Fidelity and HSBC plus I do have 10% of my portfolio in Vanguard VLS 80.