Paying a pension is like donating your money to a stranger

Mine is paid by the company without a contribution by myself

Eh...I'm not too sure how to respond to this.

If you're on a higher tax rate, you're getting around 50% extra plus company contributions for your future self.

Enjoy your holidays and cheap beer. I'll enjoy my retirement.

Once you get use to it, you budget accordingly. Won't miss it.

I pay because I don't want to be hungry in a cold house when I retire.

I feel people should manage their pension breakdown/split more. Everyone seems to put their faith in the pension providers. For example I change my pension a few months ago to have less equity/shares and it has already saved me a few bob. Not many shares have risen in last few months. I will increase equity when I feel market has neared the bottom.

If you've ever been unfortunate enough to be on social welfare, you'll see how limiting, stressful and soul destroying it is. Absolutely no way I want to live like that for my retirement. A pension/future investments are the way forward.

Yes please 🙏

None, but I've heard quite a few saying they wished they started a pension earlier, if not for themselves but for next of kin.

I started one at 22. Don't miss the outlay as I'm used to it.

Don't be asking me for fiver in a few years.

You have 5 decades before you retire. In the past 3 decades we have had the Tech bubble market crash, the 2008 financial crash, the housing crash, the 2023 crash.... All of these wiped out pensions (which were in turn bailed out by tax payers)

You not only need to invest for your pension, you need to be lucky in those investments or else you could see your savings wiped out or inflated away several times between now and your retirement.

A lot of the people who are living it up now with good pensions had defined benefit pensions from the golden age before the ladder was hoisted up behind them and we're all left with defined contribution pensions that could be worth nothing if another crash happens just before your retirement

You could try to hedge your pension by buying land or gold or gambling on bitcoin or tulips or NFTs, but it's all just the luck of the draw for the middle classes.

Why the good old taxpayer of course!

If she is living from pay check to pay check now, how do you think she will get on living of the state pension if she doesn't top it up with her own contributions?

There is a period about 8 years before you retire where the pension company winds down your exposure to equities, after each of the crashes you mentioned, the S&P still reached record highs afterwards.

Think of all the poor souls who lived beyond retirement age but didn't have a pension, I would suggest they lived a far worse life than their neighbour who was prudent and did have a pension, even if I die before retirement age, its a nice nestgg for my family to do as they please with.