Americans share their 5 biggest financial regrets

Published February 15, 2024 11:22 AM EST 2 Min Read

Woman's hands counting out a stack of money — Adobe Stock

In many ways, 2023 was a surprisingly good year for the U.S. economy. Inflation cooled, stocks rallied and the Fed promised to start cutting interest rates. And yet, at the start of 2024, many Americans looked back on their finances with regret.

A new study by Forbes Advisor and the research group OnePoll has quantified this remorse. Researchers surveyed 2,000 U.S. adults at the end of 2023, and found that 81.6% of them regretted something about their financial decisions that year. And they didn’t take these mistakes lightly — 68% said their mistakes caused them significant stress.

Predictably, older respondents felt this remorse more than younger ones. Forty-three percent of baby boomers chose this as their top regret — more than twice the rate of the whole group.

Another factor, some wealth managers believe, was FOMO. The stock market had a particularly good year in 2023 — the S&P 500, for example, climbed more than 24% — and some Americans wish they’d done more to harness those gains in their 401(k)s. But as advisers can point out to their clients, they still haven’t missed out on whatever the market may bring in 2024.

Nathan Place

National Reporter

Nathan Place is a national reporter at American Banker. A native of New York City, he has worked for more than a decade in both print and video journalism. He got his start in Beijing, where he … Read full bio

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