“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”
The latter is taking its toll on American adults, who report “not saving for retirement early enough” as their No. 1 financial regret. It’s a bit of information for 401k advisors to share (again) with millennial workers who are not currently saving.
Not saving enough for emergency expenses rings in at No. 2 and taking on too much credit card debt rounds out the top three, according to consumer finance site Bankrate.com.
Taking on too much student loan debt is fourth overall, however, it tops the list among older millennials (27-36-year-olds). Fifth is not saving enough for children’s education and sixth is buying more house than one could afford.
Baby Boomers are the most likely to regret not saving for retirement earlier; remorse over this issue grows steadily from ages 18 to 62. It’s also the biggest financial regret for every household income bracket above $30,000 per year and a close second below that threshold (to not saving enough for emergencies).
The top financial regret deals with not saving–either for retirement or emergencies–among every income bracket, level of educational attainment, gender, race, political affiliation, census region and community type, plus every age group except the aforementioned 27 to 36-year-olds.
“I’ve never met a person who regretted saving money,” Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com’s senior economic analyst, said in a statement. “Better to decide now in favor of aggressive saving rather than wait too long to begin and be sorry later.”
Bankrate.com’s Financial Security Index dipped slightly to 104.0 from 104.8 in April. Still, it remains in positive territory for the eighth consecutive month (readings over 100 indicate improved financial security relative to one year previous).
All five components–job security, comfort level with savings, comfort level with debt, net worth and overall financial situation–indicate improvement from one year ago. The savings category has only been above break-even twice since polling began in Dec. 2010 (the other time was March 2017).
Women feel more comfortable with their savings than men for the first time since June 2016, although men still have a higher overall Financial Security Index score (104.7 versus 103.1 for women).
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
