Pension vs. mortgage: where’s the smarter place for money?

[Menson21]

Best ways to invest while saving for your children’s future

More detail needed for a proper response.

Much more detail needed.

Are you talking about a pension for you or the children?

If yours, is there employer matching available? (Because it’s probably a no brainer to take advantage of the highest matching you can).

If no matching available or you’re considering a child’s pension vs overpaying your mortgage, I’d lean towards mortgage because overpaying will save you loads of interest.

Generally speaking it is better to do a bit of both. The tax relief on a pension gives you the greater financial gain compared to saving a bit of interest. However, job security / health usually decreases with age so getting your mortgage down is helpful to allow you to ride out down periods during your working life.

There is also nothing like having financial freedom but that doesn't come with clearing your mortgage (though huge relief) it is just once you can afford not to work.

Pension for your DC, I looked at the figures once and it’s crazy how the money grows.

It still depends though - I’d rather give my children money to help set them up in life / see them enjoy it, than a pension.

I can see they might be a bit frustrated at 30 to need a house deposit and have a £100k pension, for example…!

I would prioritise a house deposit over a pension for dc although compound interest is a wonderful thing.

Arguably 200k at 25 is better than a much bigger amount at 50.