“I have a £200,000-a-year business and an apartment. Is £50 a month enough to save for retirement?

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It’s been a busy few years for 32-year-old Oliver Smith. After leaving school, he honed his carpentry skills and then moved to Australia, where he excelled in the construction industry, which still uses timber frames for houses.

He says: “I started out as carpenter, self-employed, working from home – This is how people make custom carpentry in their homes: sliding wardrobes, niches, bookcases. I did a lot of different things growing up, working for different builders.”

Returning home to England just before the pandemic, he had the idea for a business and is now the owner and director of Vertex Garden Rooms, which he founded in 2021.

A garden room is a self-contained unit that people buy for a variety of purposes, such as gyms, offices or recreational spaces. The pandemic has been good for business.

Mr Smith said: “People had a lot of free money because they weren’t allowed to do anything and they concentrated their attention on their homes and gardens. Working from home has become very popularthat’s why I created and designed these houses.

“Everything is made to order, nothing is a project. I sit down with the client and basically just go through their wish list based on what they would use it for. I come up with a design that is described.

“We do the entire project completely turnkey from start to finish. We don’t leave things halfway – we provide electrical installations, finishing, and plastering. The client receives the keys and can move in.”

The business has taken off and now generates around £200,000 a year. He has already built more than 20 garden rooms and employs two full-time carpenter subcontractors, with a third on the way.

He has an apartment and some savings, as well as premium bonds. However, one aspect that is clearly missing from his finances is a pension.