I was lucky…
At the age of 25, Wincanton auto-enrolled me into the company pension scheme which was a very good one. When I left a few years later, I had accumulated a fair amount of money in it. I then opened a private plan just to have somewhere to put money into. I made one off contributions over the decades and it’s turned out to be a reasonable sum. It could have been sooo much more, had I the foresight to invest regurlarly and keep an eye on the markets etc.
It’s the one thing I wished I’d been advised about back then in my 20s, when all that mattered at the time was how many girls would be in the club on Friday nights, I’d have a great deal more now.
The strategy now I believe, is to pay into pensions from the word go on PAYE which is a good thing.