Regrets…I’ve had a few…

As a dad, I often try to impart life lessons to my kids just like people did for me when I was growing up.  And, just like I did when I was their age, there is some eye rolling and a less than full understanding of the message being delivered.  Some of the lessons I try to impart on my kids deal with more optimistic, forward looking items.  Others are lessons I learned while making mistakes in my life. 

I thought of one of the most famous songs of Frank Sinatra:”Regrets…I’ve had a few….” when I read this article about the life regrets of older adults. Three of the top regrets of older adults are financial. The #1 regret is “I wish I had saved more money.” #3 is “I wish I had made better investments” and #4 is “I wish I had kept my legal documents more organized.”

The only non-financial regret in the top 4 was health related: “I wish I had taken better care of my health.” I was shocked to not see things like “I wish I had followed my dreams” or “I wish I spent more time with friends and family” or emotional items rather than operationally-oriented items. I guess that’s because I do so much work with people in one-on-one settings that inevitably the emotional/psychological element of a person’s life gets discussed as much as, if not more than, the tactical operational elements of their financial lives.

Where the emotional element can be seen in this article is in the responses to the reasons for optimism in the survey group. Having the support of friends and family, being happy about their living situation, being in good health, being well-prepared financially and simply being a naturally optimistic person are the top reasons that the respondents looked favorably at the prospect of aging. All but one of these reasons for optimism are not behavior related. The only behavioral element in the list is being well prepared financially, which speaks to a long established track record of being fiscally sound.

So…what’s the point of looking at the regrets and reasons for optimism of older Americans?  For me, it’s to learn lessons that can help people today.  Here are some of the things that I’ve learned from this article:

  • Saving money is good! I think I already knew that before but in the reasons for optimism, being well prepared financially is one of the top 5. And the top regret is wishing that more money had been saved. I knew it was a good thing but I had no idea how important it was on both the positive and negative side of post-retirement.
  • The biggest regrets are obviously things that in retrospect were rather easy to do, yet not done.
  • I don’t want to know what the regrets of older people are now and repeat those mistakes so I am committed to NOT making these regrets be mine in 30 years.  (I’m sure I’ll have a list of others to replace these though)

What can you do to not have these regrets?

  • The basics!
  • Spend less than you make. (Know where your money goes!)
  • Save as much as you can.  (The rule of thumb is to have 3-6 months’ expenses in savings.)
  • Then save even more  (shoot for an ongoing 15-20% contribution level [including your employer’s match] to retirement accounts)
  • Run a retirement projection (Retirement Estimator).  Those who run projections have the ability to see the results and change behaviors over time.

Don’t let yourself have regrets later that you can prevent today. When you do things your way, you can look back later in life with happiness and optimism. That’s a lesson worth learning.

 

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