[jstx1]

> Well when I say max out pension it isn't really an investment decision more than it is "this is how much money the government said I need to pay them for them to take care of me when I'm 70"

Depends on what you mean by pension. In the UK most modern workplace pensions and all self-invested personal pensions are similar to 401k in the US - all the money is contributed by you and/or your employer, you can access the money after a certain age, and you have control over how that money is invested in the meantime.

And for something like state pensions, once you have contributed for 10 years, you get the same pension; you don't have the option to contribute more so you can get paid more in retirement.

> Passive income only works for really wealthy people.

Investing doesn't necessarily mean passive income, and passive income doesn't need to be complete replacement for any other income to be a good idea. If you can put $5000 in stocks and get 4-8% a year return (unless it's your only $5000) that might be better than keeping it as cash and losing 8-10% to inflation. The percentage return you'll get will be the same as the percentage return a wealthy person investing millions in the same fund would get. And the returns you'll get from investing don't need to be lifechanging to make investing a better option than the alternative.