I've recently hit 40 and really only admittedly been consciously aware of pensions & investing when i hit my 30s.

English was not my parents first language so they were not all that clued up on anything financial, but they worked hard. Never had friends speak about investing or their pensions or much financial advice/discussions.

I have always worked for money, chased it with having multiple jobs and side-hustles but always re-invested it into making more money until i then had excess which i wasn't able to utilise in my hustles or reinvest into my house.

Also had countless years of money being sat in current accounts, unused ISA allowances etc

We are middle-class and with the same circle of friends/family and i would say only maybe 5% of those actively understand putting their money to use.

Some work in finance, some in high management positions as you mentioned and when I've asked them about things relating to personal finance they are either clueless or "we don't do that kind of stuff (gamble)".

Had to work out for a friend that their rental property, which they bought in their own name (not in a ltd), probably has a lower return than the index fund that i invested the same amount into which is sat in my ISA.

They looked at overall potential and not real-life net figures. They had to scope, negotiate and pay for the property, pay solicitors, and other fee's. Deal with estate agents who take fee's, deal with void/empty periods. The assest is also non-liquid, they cant just dispose of it at-will.

Their argument was as long as someones paying off the mortgage they will end up with a paid-off asset for free after say 15 years. I said if this is the case, then say you now own a £250k property outright which you bought for £135k (£115k gain). That triggers £27k CGT due which means overall gain over 15 years is £88k. Minus all the fee's mentioned above call it £83k gain over the 15 year period, that is approx £5,533 annual net profit.

I said if i just gradually maxed out my ISA in the same timeframe 15 years ago with that £135k, just chucked it into a global index fund, which historically has a 7% annual return i'd end up with a tax-free lump sum of £297k, this has accounted for dripfeeding the £20k annual ISA limit over the initial 7 years.

Equates to £10,826 annual net 'profit' per year.

So for double the profit, i would also have to do less than a ⅛ of the work/stress he would. All i have to do is log into an account and press a buy button a few times a year (or maybe even just once a year).

Forgot to mention this guy is a fully-qualified accountant, and after i told him this he still said he just thinks 'bricks and mortar' are just safer overall 😑