It’s very difficult to look into the future and know where you will stand financially in the years to come. But try taking a few guesses (e.g. starting a family, buying a house, likely inheritance money, promotion) so that you will know how much flexibility you have to build into your plan.

Will you be better off in the years ahead? It is more difficult to foresee the problems that may be ahead. Expenses can be unexpected, and can derail even the best of plans: redundancy, long term sickness; a large bill you didn’t bargain for, such as having to replace the car, or put a new roof on the house.

• Will you need to be able to miss payments, if you are saving regularly?
• Are you likely to have to ask for some of the money early?