I've had a few people recently asked the same question.

Now for many this will seem really basic but clearly there is a need for a simple

straightforward answer to this question.

How do I set up a pension? The folks who have asked this recently have been self-employed and that makes sense because if you're an employee, it's now the law for your employer

to offer a pension plan so all the hard work is done for you but if it's just

you versus the world then here's what you need to know so let's put five minutes

on the clock here.

Say a quick thank you to my friends at a seven investment management for continuing to

sponsor the show and let's crack on. So the first thing you need to know is that a

pension is simply a different kind of savings account, right?

The whole idea of pensions has been overcomplicated by the financial services industry and

by history.

But if you're this side of retirement, that is not retired yet, I'm not retired yet, so that's this side,

makes sense. If you're this side of retirement and all you want to do is to save in a tax efficient way,

just think of a pension as a simple savings port.

But actually it's better than that because in this savings port,

the good people at H.M.R.C.

will give you money to incentivize you to save.

I'll explain more about that in a minute but we're going to

take this step by step. So first let's choose a pension. Assuming that you have

decided that a pension is a good idea, top tip, it always is, then you're going to need to choose which one you're going to

save into. The good news is that when you're getting started, it actually doesn't matter

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