Americans Say Not Saving for Retirement and Emergencies are Top Financial Regrets, Study Finds
A recent Bankrate survey found that 77 percent of Americans have a financial regret. 22 percent say they regret not saving for retirement early enough, and 18 percent regret not saving enough for financial emergencies. Overall, Americans are almost twice as likely to point to regret over a lack of savings than taking on too much debt, such as too much credit card or student loan debt.
“Saving is a lot less painful than dealing with the debt that results when you don’t have it,” said Bankrate Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride, CFA. “Paying down debt means doing without, cutting spending, or working more. Saving for retirement and emergencies can be automated through payroll deduction, direct deposit, and automatic transfers.”
Other financial regrets cited include incurring too much credit card debt (14 percent) or student loan debt (5 percent), not saving enough for children’s education (4 percent), and spending more than they can afford (2 percent). 18 percent of respondents said they did not have any financial regrets, and 5 percent said they didn’t know.
Not saving early enough for retirement was the top financial regret cited in 6 of the 7 years of polling, with emergency savings being the top regret once, and landed in second or third in the other years of polling.
40 percent of Americans with a financial regret have not made any progress on their regret in the past year. However, 44 percent say they have made some progress, and 16 percent say they have made significant progress on their regret.
“Inflation and high prices are cited as the biggest obstacle to progress in addressing our financial regrets,” McBride said. “Don’t expect an overnight fix. Inflation is moderating, but that doesn’t mean prices are coming down, just that they’re not going up as fast.
