Spoke to a cousin tonight. He's 33, a company employee and started a pension about 6 years ago with an Irish pension company. He's paying about €110 per month (which to me doesn't sound a lot but it's what he can afford). He's paid in about €8000 to date and recently got a statement telling him it's worth about €4k at present.
He's quite confused as to what he should do. He's thinking of stopping payments altogether and putting the money into a high yield savings account each month instead. I explained to him that he can claim tax relief on his contributions but that wasn't of much consolation to him, given the current value of the pension fund. Could he access that money if he stopped paying into it or would he lose it? Would he have to wait till he's a certain age before he could access it? If you know a bit about pensions, what would you recommend he do?
I told him I'd post here and come back to him. Any advice or words of wisdom would be appreciated.