32 years old and no pension

You can invest a pension in almost anything these days, if you don't want to risk an equity based investment you could look at other options, eg bonds, even straight cash. With your particular circumstances, you'd probably get 59% effective tax relief on any pension investment you make (22% income tax relief plus 37% increase in tax credits) so think carefully before discounting pensions.

The basic state pension is not means tested, it is based on NI contributions. You need 44 years of NI credits to get the full pension (if you earn at least

The state top up (was the MIG, now the pension credit they are advertising on telly) *is* means tested, but the value of the house you live in doesn't usually count. If you sold up and moved downmarket to release cash then this could disqualify you.

May be better with a flexible mortgage where you can make overpayments and then withdraw them whenever you want.

Buying a house that is more expensive than you need purely as an investment is a gamble, historically over the long term it has not paid off - *unless* you rent out the extra property you are buying, eg buy a property to let or rent out a room in your bigger house. But don't even think about doing this without doing a lot of research, don't assume, as so many people in this country seem to, that investing in property is a guaranteed money maker.

State pensions are not means tested. Therefore as long as you NI contributions are up to date you will get the state pension (Assuming it is still there when you get to age 65)

You say you are thinking of using a high interest savings account, because you can have access but above said you have no savings, Going on the current situation you haven't been able to save so far, what makes you think you will now, and what makes you think you wont decide to take it once it reaches £10k because you need a new car?

I am a fan of pensions, because of that very reason. I do *not* want access to the money that is supposed to be doing me for retirement, because if I did then there would be none left when I got to age 65.

Also if your compnay will pay into the pension then you could be getting extra benefit than you would get from a high Interest savings account. The only way a savings account would benefit you potentially is if it was tax free. (Previous post a few months ago went into this)

If you do that when you get to age 65 you will be "House Rich Cash Poor". Which means you will need to do some form of equity release or downsize to realise your asset. As it will be locked up inside your house.

Come on! What bad things are you hearing about pensions? Just list them and then we can see how valid they are. It's quite possible you are only hearing the bad things.

Rob Graham