10 years ago: Joe was 23, he was studying journalism at the University of Westminster in London. Joe hoped to graduate that year and be able to start working shortly after that.

10 years on: You are a financial advisor who works for an independent institution and Joe is one of your clients, you have to produce a report with a financial plan used to advise Joe on how best to manage his finances (property, investment and pension etc.) according to the three circumstances (scenarios) below:

Joe is now 33 and works as a free-lance journalist for a national newspaper in London. He is satisfied with the way his career has progressed, although he started working later than expected, when he was 27. His job is relatively safe. His annual salary varies between 50,000 and 66,000, he currently rents a small flat in Greenwich for which he pays 2,000 a month in rent. Joe is considering buying his own place. Working as a freelancer, Joe is not in any occupational pension scheme, nor in any personal scheme. He would like to start contributing to a private pension but he is wondering whether they are good value for money and if that would allow him to live comfortably once he retires or whether he would be better off with alternative arrangements such as buying a property to let, investing in a mutual fund or buying an endowment policy. Joe has a credit card on which he pays 38% APR and which he rarely uses. He also has 54,000 in a saving account from which he receives 1% annual interest rate and 25,000 in another saving account from which he receives 1.5% but has no access to the money for 3 years. He would like to earn more return on his savings as well as gain accessibility to them but does not know how. He is willing to take more risk. Joe is planning to get married next year.

Joe is 33 now and a well-known journalist; he has been working hard since graduating and he has now worked for many UK broadsheets. He is currently employed by the BBC. His annual salary is 80,000, he is in his employers DC pension scheme. His wife works part-time and makes an annual salary of 10,000. She is also in her workplace DC pension but the amount is less than a full-time employee. His family own and live in a small property in Wimbledon. However, they now need to move into a bigger place as their two children are 2 and 5 need more space. The couple hope that both their children will go to University. All their savings (60,000) are in a savings account which provides them with 0.8% interest a year. Joe and his wife are very risk averse but would like higher interest on their savings as they are becoming concerned about how to pay for their childrens education. Joe and his wife are also paying a mortgage (1250 a month), they have an interest-only mortgage and do not realise that in 8 years they will have to pay back the capital they borrowed which amounts to 300,000. Since Joe is the main income earner of the family, they are also considering some insurance policie