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Is ‘don’t pay into a pension’ the worst financial advice on social media?

ended 05. September 2026

A social media post quoting former World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall saying the worst advice he received was to “put money into a pension” has attracted thousands of reactions.

Hall instead advocates investing in gold, silver and property, apparently based partly on his father’s experience with his own pension.

However, many of the most popular responses have pushed back strongly, pointing out that pensions are simply a tax-efficient wrapper through which people can invest, while workplace pensions can also include valuable employer contributions.

Scott Gallacher, Chartered Financial Planner at Rowley Turton, says:

“It is reassuring that many of the most popular comments are considerably more sensible than the original message.

A pension isn’t an investment in itself. It is a tax-efficient wrapper which can hold a wide range of investments. For millions of employees, telling them not to contribute could also mean turning down both tax relief and money from their employer.

There may be perfectly legitimate reasons why someone prefers property, gold or other assets, but ‘don’t pay into a pension’ is a dangerous blanket message. Being very good at lifting heavy things doesn’t automatically make someone qualified to give financial advice.”

Questions for other experts

  • How damaging are celebrity financial opinions like this?
  • What is the biggest misconception people have about pensions?
  • Are younger people becoming more sceptical about pensions because of social media?
  • What would you say to someone considering stopping their workplace pension contributions?
  • What is the worst piece of financial “advice” you regularly see online?

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
Far too often we see celebrities criticising pensions, usually based on one bad experience or a misunderstanding of how pensions actually work.

Yet speak to older colleagues in almost any workplace and you’ll often hear the opposite: joining the company pension was one of the best financial decisions they ever made — or not joining it was one of their biggest regrets.

Pensions aren’t perfect, but tax relief, employer contributions and decades of compound growth are incredibly difficult to dismiss. Telling millions of people simply to “not pay into a pension” risks being very expensive advice indeed.
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Kate Underwood
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Am I a financial adviser? No. I'm the one who gets handed the opt-out form.
And it's never about gold or silver. It's a car that failed its MOT, a rent rise, a bad month. Someone at my desk, a bit embarrassed, asking how they stop it. People opt out because they're skint, not because they've done the maths.
I am seeing more young people stay in, but it's a certain crowd. Salaried, degree, parents who had a pension and talked about it. The ones handing the form back are hourly paid, counting the days to payday.
The pension gap isn't generational. It's financial.
Your employer's contribution is part of your pay. Opt out and you don't pocket it, you just never get it. That's not saving money, it's a pay cut you asked for.
And a man with millions telling a 24 year old on £25k that pensions are a con isn't giving advice. He'll be fine either way. She won't.
Ask your employer before you sign. There's usually more than stop or carry on.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
I’d love to see the advice he was given that was so bad. Pensions are amongst the most tax efficient ways to save for your later life. Like anything, it should be reviewed regularly to make sure you are on track. Generic comments like these aren’t helpful when we have a massive financial literacy gap in the UK. Maybe Eddie needs to spend less time in the gym and more time with a good independent financial adviser.
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Anita Wright
Chartered Financial Planner at Ribble Wealth Management
Eddie Hall can afford to be wrong about pensions. Most people can’t. When you’ve earned millions from strongman contests and television, gold, silver and property are ways of protecting wealth you already have. For someone on £30,000 a year, a pension is how you build wealth in the first place, and the free money from your employer and the taxman does most of the heavy lifting. Hall isn’t wrong that governments are drowning in debt and inflation is likely to stay stubborn. Holding some gold as insurance against that is perfectly sensible. But that’s an argument about what to put inside your pension, not whether to have one. Celebrity advice usually describes the celebrity’s situation, not yours. If you’ve already made your fortune, you can skip the pension. If you’re still making it, turning down employer contributions and tax relief is choosing to run the race with weights strapped to your back
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Mike Staton
Director at Staton Mortgages
The worst thing you could do to damage your financial health is to take financial advice from a celebrity weightlifter that paid £5000 for rice and beans on a Netflix reality TV show. Eddie Hall is good at what he does but he does not have the education or qualifications to be advising people how to protect their future, let's face it, anybody that knows the smallest thing about pensions know that your tax break alone is bigger than any tax break you will get on an investment. Also if the average person puts £350 into their pension pot and their employer matches it, is he saying that free money is a poor investment. Eddie, stick to what your good at.
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Rob Mansfield
Independent Financial Advisor at Rootes Wealth Management
Any blanket advice or recommendation should come with big flashing warning signs. Pensions in particular haven't always had the best reputation and many endure rather than embrace their pensions. It's unfortunate if Eddie's father had a poor experience, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think the onus is on pension providers to explain their products clearly rather than just issue reams of paperwork full of technical jargon and expect people to understand it.
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Antonia Medlicott
Founder & MD at Investing Insiders
Celebrities who voice these opinions cause irreparable damage because they make complex financial decisions sound like a lesson. Hall won’t need a pension to survive in his later years, but the average person does. Property, gold and other assets are good investments, but presenting this approach as universally better than a pension ignores the fact that everyone’s circumstances, tax position and risk tolerance differ.

Perilous social media advice influences younger people not to pay into a pension by increasing their scepticism. There needs to be more regulation when role models and celebrities post.

Before stopping pension contributions, understand exactly what you are giving up. The tax relief and employer contributions give away thousands of free money every year, which in a 30-year retirement, can be worth hundreds of thousands. The compound interest over a 35-plus-year career does the heavy lifting and can provide a comfortable future.
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Paul Denley
CEO at Oakham Wealth Management
Eddie Hall is a phenomenal athlete, but a strongman title is not a financial qualification. He seems to be confusing a pension with what you might invest in it. A pension is not an asset class. It is a tax efficient wrapper, and within it you can invest across a wide range of assets.

What you cannot easily replicate outside a pension is tax relief on contributions and, for most employees, a contribution from their employer, on top of tax free growth. Turning all of that down could be an expensive decision.

One supposed disadvantage of pensions is actually one of their greatest strengths: you can't get at the money until later in life. That enforced discipline, combined with decades of compounding, is precisely why they work so well.

The worst online financial advice is usually a personal anecdote stretched into a rule for everyone. Anyone thinking of stopping their workplace pension should first ask what they are giving up, not just what they are buying instead.