No pension and fast approaching 40

Pal

AJ, In way of an answer and a question, I'm in a similar boat to you.  I have a pension of sorts but it's not worth a lot, but I have recently come into some money.  I'm thinking about buying a villa abroad and paying the mortgage instead of paying pension contributions, the rent should let it pay for itself, if it goes well I may be able to have 2 or 3 places by the time I retire and at todays tourists rates I should be seeing about £30K a year, all mine (and the tax mans) with no pension broker to pay!

I hate the fact that the press has made so many people think that pensions and BTL property are somehow interchangable. They are not. They are very different things. A pension is a savings vehicle. A BTL is a business.

A BTL involves using a lump sum to buy property to earn yourself an immediate and future income.

A pension involves putting money away, usually out of income, to spend at a later date when you are no longer working.

One gives you income now (or, at least, it should). The other usually uses income you have now and puts it away for you to spend later in life. You can do both at the same time!

happygolucky_4

Thanks PAL, that's exactly what Id planned to do. My pension will still pay out but BTL is a business I can run well past retirement age and effectively never retire!

Finishrich

 Will have to start cutting back even more and try to put into a pension.
Thanks again.

Alison

Try changing your thought process on pensions.  Look at the contribution as one of the first things you must pay each month, kind of like the mortgage etc.  Then what's left you can spend rather than the other way about.  

It works, We did this last year plus it included big increases to the contributions, which otherwise I would have said there's no way we could have afforded to pay the increased amount - but we can.