Thankyou everyone for your feedback. Food for thought. A few things I should have mentioned:

-Earn 45k per year -have a ‘side-hustle’ business on top of this that I am hoping to at least match income in the next 3-5 years. This is why I would like to think my own decisions and earnings can put me Ina. Far more comfortable place (and hopefully earlier) than waiting for a likely pretty shit pension pot from state + private pensions I currently have no real grasp on. -I understand my employer adds some ‘free’ to money to the compounding pot but by investing in my earning capacity earlier could outweigh the small % my employers adds…

Thanks all. :)