Life is a funny thing as it isn’t until you reach pension age that you realize that you have spent all of these years thinking that you knew everything and, in fact, you knew nothing. When you reach twenty you think that you were a fool during your teenage years and at thirty you realize what an idiot you were in your twenties. At forty you wished you had tried harder in your thirties and at fifty you begin to see that your working life is coming towards the end at an alarming speed. It is usually somewhere around now that you suddenly start worrying about your pension.

Only by then it is often too late to make a really good contribution that will help you be nice and comfortable after your working days have finished. This is where you begin to wish that you had been far more sensible when you were younger and made some investments in your future. But at that time you had your whole life in front of you and there were much more exciting things to spend your cash on than a pension.

So here is the thing, the best time to start a pension is now; this moment, as soon as you finish reading this. Because the longer you wait the more you will have to put in at a later date and that means that you are actually planning to be worse off in the future.
The point is that you don’t even need to start contributing a huge amount and if you get in early, say when you are in your early twenties, then a small monthly donation could go a long way further down the road. It also helps get you used to making contributions and teach you all about the fun of saving. So now is the time to see what pension schemes are available to you.

Lots of countries run some sort of state pension system that is compulsory to be a part of and these should give you something when you retire from work. But as we are all starting to live longer and draw more pension checks, the rules around these types of pension are being changed and we can no longer rely on them to keep us up in the manner we have become accustomed to.
Which leaves private and work options and these can be a really good idea. Work pensions often match any contributions you make and this puts them firmly on the favorites’ list whereas a private pension is just that; yours alone. So if there is a work pension available to you then get on it and add a private one too, if you can afford it.

As you continue your career you should start increasing your salary and this is the time to increase the contributions that you make towards your pensions. Remember the more you put in, the more you will receive and when you get to fifty you will really start looking forward to getting the benefits of all your hard work.