The top regret at 22%, is not saving enough for retirement. As baby-boomers continue to enter into retirement, it's not surprising that this number rose 4% from last year. And it's not just for retirement savings that people wish they could go back in time. In fact, nearly half of all survey responses generally point to not saving enough. Participants reported not saving enough for college (8%), emergencies (16%), and retirement (22%).
The other large swath of regrets were from having too much debt burden. The biggest regrets were taking too much credit card debt (9%), too much student loan debt (9%) and 2% of respondents expressed buying more house than they could afford.
There is a glimmer of hope though. There were a peculiar 20% who responded "none" when asked for their biggest financial regret. If you want to start your journey to becoming part if this strange group of, let's call them, the "fiscally satisfied," then you can follow the Wealth Education Exchange's advice, which is to save at least 15% of your income for retirement using tax-favored retirement accounts like 401Ks, 403Bs, and Roth IRAs. But you definitely can't do this if you are straddled deep in debt. Therefore, you need to stop using debt for purchases and pay off the debts you already have. But to do this, you need to live on less than you make. And to live on less than you make, you need to create - and live on - a budget.
This is all starting to sound like discipline... It's not easy, but it's absolutely necessary if you want to be a part of the 20% of people without financial regrets. Join one of our classes to learn the habits of the "fiscally satisfied" and be on your way to financial freedom.
