UK adults ‘have many financial regrets’

Hindsight is certainly a wonderful thing and it seems that many Britons would do things a little differently if they were able to go back in time.

A new study conducted by Standard Life has shown that adults in the UK regret many of the financial decisions they have made in the past and now they are paying the price. Most people said they would have started to save towards retirement far earlier in their career if they had their time again.

Indeed, 15 per cent of the poll suggested that they should have put money aside when they were younger and this figure rises to 20 per cent when solely taking the over-55s into account. One common theme to emerge from the research was that Britons are annoyed they have allowed themselves to slip into so much debt.

Times are hard for a lot of households and some simply do not have enough of their wages left over each month to set up a nest egg for later life. Indeed, a recent study by Scottish Widows showed that almost 15 million people across the UK are not currently making any effort to save.

Standard Life's Julie Russell thinks this is a huge error and she urged people to learn from the mistakes of older Britons.

"If 20 per cent of baby boomers who are retiring or are already retired say they wish they'd started saving for their retirement earlier, then we would be foolish not to listen to their advice," she remarked. "For those who feel they've already left it too late, the important thing is not to panic and save what they can now."

Around 14 per cent of respondents claimed their biggest regret was running up excessive amounts of credit card debt and relying too heavily on store cards. In addition to this, one in ten people wished they had been less extravagant with their spending and had stuck to a sensible budget instead.

Find out more about money management on the ClearDebt blog.

By James Francis