Blue-streak
Roofer
Cheers for this Elmet, appreciatedYes it is scary, and as someone more than twice your age it is scarier still because hindsight is not that much use as the conditions have changed so much over the last 25 years. Our pension planning was based on final salary pensions. Forget that. And being to afford to buy a house in your twenties. Forget that. One thing that could be said to have changed for the better is that there is a chance your parents will be able to pass on some decent money to you from the sale of the house when they pass on, but people are living so long these days that this is no guarantee. But this has driven the (undeserved) popularity of equity release.
My advice would be start getting into the saving habit as early as you can. Save for a house (bricks and mortar); if you can find an employer that contributes to a pension scheme it is advantageous; then drip feed spare money into stocks and shares through a unit trust, hindsight does show that over a working lifetime equities have a better than average return. It may not get you to Micky's £500k, but if you have to live off the state pension alone you are stuffed.
Good luck.