A recent study in the UK shed light on some of the regrets that retirees have about the way they handled their finances pre-retirement. While there wasn’t one major regret that all of those polled had, some of these ideas may be something pre-retirees will want to look into. Especially if retirement is something that’s not necessarily right around the corner for them. People in their 50s can still make considerable adjustments to their financial strategy, which can heavily impact their lives post-retirement. That impact is obviously less severe for people who are getting closer to 65.
While, as mentioned, there’s not one major regret that most of those polled had, 40% of them did admit to having at least one regret after retiring. The biggest regret in the survey was not increasing retirement savings while the people were still part of the workforce. That’s a very serious regret, and it’s one that 17% of those polled admitted to. The thing with this regret is that it can creep on you quickly. If you find yourself having a hard time trying to make ends meet post-retirement, of course, you’d want to go back and put more money into your fund while you still could.
This could be a great teaching point for people at a pre-retirement age. The question that people may want to ask themselves is, what would you be willing to give up now to ensure you can live more comfortably when you’re no longer working? That answer can be different for many people. However, at least according to the survey, it could be a good thing to question yourself about before you run out of time.
Another big regret shared by 12% of those polled is precisely not making lifestyle changes while in the workforce to save up more for retirement. It’s not that this is an easy decision to make. Perhaps those people who regret not making lifestyle changes don’t regret the family trip they took a few years back. Looking back, it could be subtle changes to lifestyle that end up going a long way as the years pile on.
The last regret that many people had was retiring too early. It’s important to point out that the survey does not go into detail about why people have this regret. In some cases, people probably wish they had retired later to have more time to save up for post-work life. At the same time, that gives you more years of active work and less living off the money you saved up. In other cases, this regret may be a bit deeper. This is a situation that new generations of retirees are probably going to have to contend with more.
Sometimes, companies or professions, such as airline pilots, have mandatory retirement ages. This leaves people with few options but to call it quits when they reach 65. Perhaps one of the regrets is feeling like they had a bit more in the tank. That’s why many people are going into second careers or side businesses once they formally exit the workforce.
