Investing for the future is something Britons are rather bad at. If you believe the recent media furore the live for today attitude of the British consumer has led to massive, unmanageable personal debt, zero savings and no pension scheme.

In defence of Mr and Mrs Average, interest in savings accounts does appear to be picking up and this year has been tempered by a marked slowdown in consumer spending rather than a continuation of the credit boom.

At the same time confidence in the pension system is at an all time low. Pensions have been slammed in the press with high profile collapses and big name companies closing down their schemes to new staff.

But whatever the reason the truth is that literally millions of people could be facing poverty in retirement because they have made little provision for the future. With so many other things to spend your money on, both essentials and the latest must-have gadgets, it is perhaps little wonder that many people put their priorities elsewhere.

An alternative to a pension scheme is a private investment of your own. One of the most popular and perhaps easiest to make a success of is in the buy-to-let property market. Despite the increases in interest rates in the first half of last year the cost of borrowing is still relatively low.

This means that with money cheaper than it has been at many points in the past, taking out additional loans to invest for the future could be a good move. Buy-to-let is no longer something for the fabulously wealthy or the business tycoon, but is a real option for the average Briton.

All major mortgage providers now offer mortgages tailored specifically for people who want to invest in property. These types loans usually come at a higher rate of interest and require a much larger deposit but for anyone close to paying off their mortgage they could provide a decent investment.

Figures show that house prices double every ten years, meaning that an investment even quite close to retirement could build up a decent amount of equity to fund a more comfortable or even more adventurous twilight.

Parents sending their children to university have been a fertile market for buy-to-let mortgage providers. Most students have to rent privately after the first year and often get charged much higher rates than a family would expect to pay for the same property. In a bid to save themselves some money and exploit an investment opportunity, many parents have bought property in university towns, renting it out to their children and other students.

After graduation, the property can then be rented out again to a fresh crop of undergraduates or sold with the equity making a nice return. Even the prime minister has got in on the act, famously, and rather controversially, buying property in Bristol where his son Euan was attending university.

In more general terms, property is widely considered a sound investment. Where pensions have been severely hamstrung by negative publicity, even talk of an 80s style property crash lasting many months has failed to undermine confidence in bricks and mortar.

With the latest figures suggesting that mortgage activity is picking up again and with last month's cut in the base rate more people are returning to the market, it will only be a matter of time before prices start rising again.