A new survey from Partnership has revealed not saving enough is the top financial regret for many, with 36 per cent of people saying they wished they had put more aside and 25 per cent lamenting not amassing more in their pension.
A poll of more than 1,300 people by OpinionMatters found the number of people who regret not saving more halves as people age. Between 40 to 50 year olds the figure stands at 46 per cent, whereas for 61 to 70 year olds it stands at 23 per cent.
However, the number of people who regret not making more pension provision only falls by 1 per cent from 23 per cent to 22 per cent.
Partnership said that this seems to suggest that as people age, and retirement becomes a pressing reality, the focus more on the need to put aside money into their pension rather than general savings.
Around 13 per cent regretted getting divorced, 12 per cent felt that putting money into poorly performing investments was their next biggest mistake and 8 per cent delayed buying a house at 8 per cent.
Andrew Megson, managing director of retirement, Partnership said: “While everyone makes mistakes in life - it appears that the two most common financial regrets relate to people taking no action at all rather than making an error because they took a huge gamble.
“That said, one in ten consider getting married and then divorced as their biggest financial mistake so perhaps the best approach is to be as prudent as possible in all areas of your life – including relationships.
“The new pension freedoms mean that people are going to be facing an increasing number of choices. This research suggests that not only do people need to work hard to put aside money while they are working but also need to carefully consider how they intend to use this money when they eventually retire.
“Using an annuity to ensure that they have a minimum guaranteed level of income means that people have more freedom as to how they use the remainder of their retirement assets – and are hopefully less likely to have regrets.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
