Post-Pandemic Study on Americans and financial regrets:

https://www.bankrate.com/surveys/biggest-financial-regrets/

Pre-Pandemic Study on Americans and financial regrets:

https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/personal-finance/financial-mistakes-americans-learn-from-biggest-financial-regrets/

2021 Data:

• 20% regret not saving enough for emergency expenses
• 19% regret not saving for retirement early enough
• 18% regret taking on too much credit card debt
• 10% regret taking on too much student loan debt
• 7% regret not saving enough for their children’s education
• 4% regret buying more house than they can afford
• 4% regret something else

Cause Of Financial Regrets

"Financial mistakes generally stem from a tendency to live day to day financially. People start to get over their mistakes when they start to think about the future and think about what's possible financially in their lives. It boils down to this: People's financial mistakes stem from focusing on the near-term financially instead of the long-term." (Brian Madgett, head of consumer education at New York Life)

How to Avoid Financial Regrets

• Stop living paycheck to paycheck/build an emergency fund (episode 20)
  • There’s no excuse
  • Earning $50k per year, you’ll make $2M in your lifetime. ($4M @ $100k/yr)
  • Learn how to manage a little and you’ll win with a lot
• Start saving and investing when you’re young
  • You have decades to recover. Dips in the market are only paper losses. Unless you believe the entire American economy is going to collapse (meaning the entire world’s economy will collapse), you shouldn’t stress. It’s a long-term game.
• Stop trying to time the market → Stick with dollar cost averaging
  • When the market pulls back – which it does regularly – if you're systematically putting money away (not trying to time the market), you get more shares as prices go lower. Then when the market rebounds (which it always does), it accelerates your growth. That's the power of dollar-cost averaging."
  • Take advantage of employer match (Episode 7)
• Stop acting rich when you’re not rich...and you can actually become rich (episode 21)
• Don’t let escalating income lead to escalating expenses (episode 10)
  • 25% Rule: 25% goes to spending and lifestyle // 7% to saving, investing, etc.