DIY Investor Diary: how I mix tech and dividends
An ii customer with a contrarian streak discusses his SIPP income portfolio that contains a handful of racy growth shares.
17th June 2026 09:00
by Dave Baxter from interactive investor
Entering retirement can sometimes act as a prompt to take some investment risk off the table, be it holding funds rather than shares or seeking out steady dividend payers rather than racy growth shares.
However, things can be more complicated than that. That’s the case for one ii customer, who has turned his self-invested personal pension (SIPP) into an income portfolio but continues to seek out multi-baggers elsewhere.
The customer is 66 and has flirted with the idea of retirement, having not worked for around a year. That caused him to “flip” his pension, which has around £600,000, into a vehicle for steady dividend payers, targeting a yield of around 7% or 8%.
As the first table shows, there’s quite a mix here, from classic UK-listed dividend behemoths such as BT Group BT.A
HSBC Holdings HSBA and M&G Ordinary Shares MNG0 to a handful of investment trusts. There’s the popular and high-yielding Henderson Far East Income Ord HFEL, Greencoat UK Wind UKW, SDCL Efficiency Income Trust plc. SEIT and CQS New City High Yield Ord NCYF.
“I looked at solid companies for a lot of the money,” he said. “I liked names in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 – these won’t crash and burn.”
| The customer’s SIPP | |
| Holding | Value |
| BT Group BT.A0.56% | £26,365.27 |
| Churchill China CHH0.00% | £20,790.00 |
| CQS New City High Yield Ord NCYF0.20% | £49,360.30 |
| Greencoat UK Wind UKW1.26% | £31,290.00 |
| Henderson Far East Income Ord HFEL1.09% | £29,406.21 |
| HSBC Holdings HSBA1.94% | £37,266.82 |
| Ithaca Energy Ordinary Share ITH1.03% | £28,285.11 |
| Keller Group KLR1.05% | £25,264.80 |
| Legal & General Group LGEN1.14% | £50,220.00 |
| M&G Ordinary Shares MNG0.49% | £37,323.86 |
| Polar Capital Holdings POLR0.00% | £53,865.24 |
| Rio Tinto Ordinary Shares RIO0.86% | £53,730.45 |
| SDCL Efficiency Income Trust plc. SEIT6.52% | £32,269.50 |
| Speedy Hire SDY3.52% | £24,882.00 |
| Taylor Wimpey TW.3.46% | £28,245.80 |
| Telecom Plus TEP1.72% | £30,360.00 |
| Vodafone Group VOD1.03% | £36,811.80 |
That portfolio should provide some reliable income, much as there can still be hiccups, as with the proposed managed wind-down of the SDCL trust.
Shares in the trust tumbled this week after the board said it would suspend dividend payments and “prioritise preserving value and reducing debt ahead of future returns of cash to shareholders”.
But his overall portfolio stretches more further, with around £1 million in an ISA and a further £3 million spread across trading accounts.
The customer spent a long time working in the energy sector and focusing on technology, and in the spirit of investing in what you know, he does hold shares in both areas.
Note, for example, that the ISA includes Glencore GLEN
and a copper miners exchange-traded fund (ETF) but that different innovative technologies also sit in the portfolio.
The customer bought into Seraphim Space Investment Trust Ord SSIT
when the shares were on a low a few years ago, holds some of the tech funds, owns some gaming companies such as Frontier Developments FDEV
and has previously invested in areas like graphene.
This has resulted in some big wins and losses at times, but the customer remains convinced that strong performers can tip the balance. “Some might crash and burn but the winners outweigh the losers,” he says.
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