I've always thought this way, uncertainty or not. Why wait until you're old and frail to enjoy life?
I've always put the matched contribution into my retirement accounts, because it's free money, but no more than that. The rest of my savings go into places where I don't have to wait until my life is nearly over to access them.
You should do the math on how much you'll likely actually have in retirement, and see how you feel about it, before it's too late to change your strategy.
I put almost 20% of my net salary in to my pension, and my employer another 8%, and it's still unlikely that I'll be able to retire particularly early or will live a particularly comfortable life in retirement. For one thing, if I'm still renting when I retire I'll likely be barely scraping by.
Doing the math can be a shock.
My basic view is that I don't want to be rich when I'm old so that I can make "dream purchases" or live on a cruise ship for the rest of my days or whatever; I want to be living comfortably and fully for my whole life.
So for example, if you want a $30,000/yr (inflation adjusted) income in retirement you need to save yourself a $1M (inflation adjusted) pot. Over a 30 year career with a 5% (real, above inflation) investment return that takes $1,200/month.
Lots of people think saving a couple of hundred bucks per month will leave them super comfortable. The math tells the scary reality.
- 1 unit/mo for 10 years at 7%/yr => 172 units.
- 172 units @ 7%/yr for 35 years => 1,836 units
vs.
- 1 unit/mo for 35 years at 7%/yr => 1,721 units
Depends on rates though who comes out in front.
Maybe some of that 28% should be put towards property?
I'm pretty sure that cases where mortgage is more expensive than renting through 30+ years are very, very rare.