(InvestigateTV) — A 2024 Bankrate study found that not only do 77% of Americans have financial regrets, but 40% have made no progress on those regrets in the last 12 months.
“What we found is the regrets about savings or maybe more accurately not saving, they outweigh the regrets about debt and spending by about a 2 to 1 margin,” Greg McBride with Bankrate said. “Regrets about not started saving for retirement early enough and not having enough emergency savings bubbling to the top.
He said other major regrets include incurring too much credit card or student loan debt, not saving enough for a child’s education, and buying more houses than one can afford.
“A lot of these regrets can be addressed in one fashion or another,” McBride explained. “The lack of saving is something you can address just through a more aggressive program of saving, maybe dialing back expenses, working longer, that type of thing.”
He said successful saving is all about the habit and the key is automating it, just like an automatic payroll deduction to fund a work based 401(k).
He also urged consumers to have money from each paycheck automatically directly deposited into a savings account. It helps to create an emergency fund that grows with each payday.
McBride said addressing savings is a lot easier than addressing debt. Dealing with debt without any savings is very hard. So, try to make it a priority to build an emergency fund.
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