LONDONDERRY, N.H. -- It was a picture worthy of a political Christmas card: On the right, a tree with all the trimmings. On the left, three generations of the Shannon family. In the middle, Steve Forbes, praising his plan to reform Social Security.

The Republican presidential candidate set up a microphone in the family's living room on Monday to explain his proposal to allow workers to invest their payroll taxes in private retirement accounts. Workers also would have the option of staying in the current system.

"It helps every single generation," Forbes said, pointing to the family, "And every successive generation gets more of an opportunity than the previous one."

The publisher said his plan encourages younger workers to save for their retirement, knowing the money will be there. Retirement account information would be available daily, he said.

"From the time they take a part-time job, they will get a piece of paper proving they are not just working for now, but for the future," Forbes said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, a rival for the GOP presidential nomination, also supports allowing workers to invest some of their payroll taxes in private accounts. In new television ads that began airing Monday in New Hampshire and South Carolina, he emphasizes his commitment to protect Social Security, promising not to let money earmarked for the program be used for anything else.

"It won't be easy, but being president isn't supposed to be easy," McCain says.

At the Forbes living-room campaign event, Paul Shannon, a lab technician, said he likes the idea of having his own retirement account.

"You'd have a claim to what you saved," he said. "I don't understand why this country is lagging behind. The sophistication of the market is such that we ought to commit to a true retirement system."

Forbes reiterated his Social Security plan at the Dunkin' Donuts in Goffstown this morning. One of his fans was a part time worker at another Dunkin' Donuts shop who happens to share the candidate's name.

"Every week, the IRS is dipping its hand into my pocket and I don't like that," said Steve Forbes, 14, of Manchester, who favors the candidate's flat tax proposal.

Beatrice Carter, 77, of Manchester, said she likes Forbes because he wants to run the country like a business. She also likes his Social Security ideas and said Forbes reminds her of Ronald Reagan.

"Maybe I didn't get rich, but I sure felt good about my country," when Reagan was president, she said.

Forbes' two-day campaign trip to New Hampshire coincides with the airing of two new ads in which he explains his proposals to improve Social Security, education and health care.

Neither ad mentions any of his opponents for the GOP nomination, although Forbes ran a TV ad last month accusing Texas Gov. George W. Bush of betraying the American people over Social Security. He didn't mention his rivals by name Monday either, but did refer to Bush as "one of my opponents" who has proposed raising the retirement age. Actually, Bush has suggested policy-makers consider raising the retirement age, but he has not proposed that it be done.