Martin, 45, gave the advice during an appearance on This Morning.
Talking to Holly and Phil, he said: “If you’re an employee and you work in a firm with over 50 people, your employer automatically opts you in now to saving for a pension.
“You are allowed to opt out, and if you do, effectively people are giving away a massive pay rise and its a real warning to people to not just do this thinking ‘oh I don’t really wanna be bothered with that.
“When you’re opted in, not only do you save to your pension, but by law, your employer has to put in too.
“The problem comes when you see less in your take home, and many people who are struggling say ‘I really need the money, I’m not going do to it, I’m going to take that money out because I need a bigger pay packet.
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“But we have to be honest, there is a real question on whether for those under 50 the state pension is really going to be that strong when you retire.
“I’s easy to think short term now but if your employer is matching your money…”
Explaining how much you should be saving, Martin said: “Let’s say you put £50 a month in your pension, to put £50 in a month, because of the tax benefit, it will only cost you £40. In some circumstances because of salary sacrifice it will only cost you £34 to to pay £50 in.
“If your employer is then matching it, you’re getting £100 a month in your pension, and losing £40 a month from your pay packet.
“So that means, £480 a year can give you £1200 in your pension saving, year after year towards your retirement.
“This is the most effective way to save, there is nothing else like it out there.
“There are lots of companies out there who will match up to five or six or seven per cent, and I would suggest if you can, you put in what will give you the maximum from them, because every time you put more in, they have to give you more, and it saves more for when you get into retirement.
Going further into the figures, Martin said: “Take the age when you start saving into your pension for the first time, so let’s say you are 30. Half it, so 15. That is the percentage of your income you want to be putting in to your pension for the rest of your life for a comfortable retirement.
“Include the employers contribution, so if you put five per cent in and they put five per cent in, that’s ten per cent.
“Most people won’t do that but there are two lessons we can learn from that. One – put as much as you can in and two – the earlier you start the better. Every time you get a pay rise, put a quarter of that into your pension before you’ve felt it.”
If you have set a good pension up and still want to save, Martin advised the best savings accounts to put your money into.