Pension or save a deposit for house?

hostie

Hello, I am 30 and have been paying some money into a pension for a few years. My employer also contributes. My salary is low and I don't have a house. I wonder if it is silly to be paying money into a pension fund when I should really be saving everything for a house.

I have some savings and intend to save a lot more soon but where I live house prices are really high. I could buy a cheap house somewhere else and rent it out but I wonder if there is any point in that as my rent is quite high and it might make it harder for me to get a second mortgage in the future to buy where I live.

Should I cancel my pension payments and lose the employer contribution?
If so, should I also take out what I have put in and put it towards a house?

Thanks help would very much be appreciated.

dunstonh

The free money from the employer is valuable and shouldnt be disregarded.

In this life you have to budget for a range of things and the free money from the employer into the pension should make budgeting for retirement easier.

In reality, the amount you personally pay into the pension (net) is likely to be very low. In the scheme of things its likely to have little impact or benefit in you stopping it and putting it into savings. So you may as well carry on with the pension.

EdInvestor

Should I cancel my pension payments and lose the employer contribution?

Not an easy decision.How much have you accumulated in the pension so far?

Also, could you check your situation re the two state pensions and how much you can expect from them when you retire?

If so, should I also take out what I have put in and put it towards a house?

You can't get pension money out.After age 55, 25% can be extracted but the rest must stay in there to provide a retirement income.

Realistically, if you stopped contributing to the pension, how long would it take you to save up a deposit for a house?

hostie

I suspect that I only have a few thousand of my own in the pension fund and so dunstonh is probably right that the small amount of money that I put away every month isn't going to make much difference to my buying a house. I am only 30 so I feel that the state pensions may be gone before I retire and so I don't place much hope on them!
Thanks