Only a small point but remember to take any tax free income available if there is leeway between your state pensions and your personal tax free allowances of £12500 each
A possible tax free £2-3000 pa each is always a help
Doing this procedure also allows you to learn how to handle bigger SIPP withdrawals in the future ie getting
to grips with the Government Gateway and online P55 tax reclaim forms
xxd09

That's perfectly all right, Big Boy - different opinions to be expected and I shan't be offended if this set-up doesn't have the support of a "Professional."

I don't believe the industry has caught up with people's raised expectations of a personal pension after the Pension Freedoms Acts. So the legacy support its experienced Professionals offers still tends to be a comfortable glidepath to zero. If that is the journey's end Alan-T wants - and I don't think it is - he won't lack assistance.

It's hardly a "great idea" but I wouldn't call it particularly "high risk" either. I don't see those mega caps collapsing. They may well evolve into stable dividend paying stocks, META and GOOGL started paying quarterly dividends last year. Yields are tiny, but not if you bought in to the stock ten years ago.
Of course, there is always the risk of drawdown exacerbating the damage of a sequence of poor returns but Alan-T does have three years' emergency cash should a break be needed. People feel losses more than gains. The industry knows it hence the benefit of a good sequence of returns is underplayed imho. Put it this way, had Alan-T had made different choices three years ago, he wouldn't be apprehensive now.

Having said all that, I should hate to see Mr and Mrs T embark on any course that makes them unhappy.
That would defeat the object of the exercise and being happy is far more important than being rich.

Best of luck!

The mega-cap side is not as stressful as people imagine. A holding of four should be enough. I would not recommend Nividia, nor Tesla in this instance. Admittedly the others are still near the top of the volatility hierarchy but they do not generally perform as one. Times they do - when the economic outlook looks parlous - correspond with a flight of money to the safety of the dollar. Customarily, that cushions between a fifth and a quarter of the downturn, in my experience. This week, for example.

On a ten to fifteen year outlook, and beyond, stocks are likely the fastest way to climb from A to B. That won't change because you are getting older and the wisdom of changing from accumulation to decumulation is lost on me. Perhaps I shall feel it when I reach seventy-five, don slippers and cardigan, settle into a rocking chair and search for a radio station that plays "Your age in bonds" and other old favourites.

I don’t know what I’m doing as an investor. I’m more confident in letting third-parties use my money for their investments than me determining where to put it.