Should I save or put money into my workplace pension?

af1963

LHW99 said:

You need to read all the forecast. It may tell you how many more years you need to get the maximum, or (if you are very lucky) that "you cannot improve your forecast".

If you still have 16 years to work ( and actually plan to work some or all of them) but "cannot improve your forecast", that's not lucky, quite the opposite. It means the NI that you pay from now on won't increase your pension, but  you still have to pay it.

Cus

If you put the £500 into a pension and cannot touch it, as you say you have sufficient amount of remaining income per month to live in a style that is satisfactory for you then as you have issues spending anything you have, do this imo and not have it in accessible savings.
Then when you are 57 you can access it if needed if your work hours need to go down from that age.
You have an emergency fund, and you expect to be able to work full time till 57 hence the above.  Imo