Ian O'Brien, aged 41, an IT support manager. Married and lives in Middlesex. (Salary range £45,000 - £55,000)

"I am in the fairly lucky position that I have always been directly employed by companies that offered decent pension schemes. I have been funding my pension since my mid-twenties and I have always had employer contributions to match what I paid in."

While he admits he was fortunate to go into a group scheme at such an early age, he insists that since getting married there is a far more methodical approach to retirement planning for himself and his wife.

"My wife Michelle is very organised and we actually sat down with a piece of paper and worked out financially where we stood at that present time. This, I discovered, is the only way you can actually work out where you want to be 15 or 20 years down the line. I decided that I would increase my monthly pension contributions so that I got the maximum contribution from my employer. Michelle, who has a company pension too, had already done that."

Whilst Michelle has no immediate plans to leave full time employment - she has the option to take out a stakeholder pension to run alongside her company pension. In the event that she does take time out to be a full-time mum, she has a pension already set up. Even if you have no form of paid employment, you can set up a stakeholder pension. You can then benefit from tax relief on your contributions, even if you don't pay any income tax.

In retirement Ian and Michelle want to indulge their passion for travelling and with spare time on his hands, Ian would like to join the local golf club. "I don't have enough free time at the minute to justify golf club membership, but I'd like to think when I retire I can play a couple of times a week."

Ian's Pension Time Machine
Verdict: The benefits of starting pension contributions early in your working life are clearly demonstrated in Ian's case.

He has almost 20 years' worth of pension contributions and he still has another prospective 24 years of contributions to go before he retires.

His projected income (in today's money) on retirement continuing his present contributions would be £24,304 per year from a total pension fund of just over £549,000. On top of that he will have money from ISA investments and of course any state pension entitlement. His wife too will have a company pension and her own ISA savings.

Ian may not be rolling in money in his retirement but he and his wife should be able to live a comfortable lifestyle. Joining the local golf club as planned should not be a problem, nor should regular trips to long-haul destinations.

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