Should I stop Self contribution to my Pension Fund?

[October2c]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can give me some advice on my pension questions.

I'm a 33 years old. At the moment, I have no debt nor mortgage. I have some regular savings and prepare to buy a house next year with my husband.
With the earnings i have, since last year, I have put the max self contribution to my pension (20%).
The initial idea was for tax saving (i am paying 41% on some of my earning) and try to build more now when i can give some self contribution to build up my pension. I'm expecting i will not have excess money to build my pension after next year becasue of buying a house.
(just a note, Irish Life is charging me 5% fees on my portion of the contribution.)

The pension fund performance (Irish Life) I have, I can see the value of the fund is less then the amount of contribution i have put in so far.
I'm just wondering should i stop putting the self contribution into my pension (my company are giving me certain % of my salary into my pension already). By stop doing the self contribution, I can put the money into some saving account instead of puting them into the pension fund?

I don't have much knowledge in pension or investment, I'm just not sure should i continue to have self contribute to my pension or stop it now with the current problem in the fund market....

I hope someone can give me some advice.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ClubMan]

If you are planning to buy a house then it could make sense to stop making pension contributions and concentrate on saving towards the house purchase. An exception might be where you need to make some contribution to avail of matched employer contributions. However these are simply generalised comments that may or may not apply depending on any particular individual's specific circumstances. If in doubt get independent professional advice.

What sort of pension is this? Occupational, personal or PRSA? Charges of 5% per contribution (?) are not great and you can probably do better. See the Financial Best Buys forum key post on cheap PRSAs etc.