The biggest retirement regrets — and how to avoid them

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The biggest retirement regrets — and how to avoid them

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If given the opportunity to do things over, many retirees say they would’ve made financial decisions differently.

According to research by

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, a Wharton professor and executive director of the Pension Research Council, a majority of the adults over the age of 50 that Mitchell surveyed

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“A majority of the respondents said they wished they saved more,” Mitchell said on a recent episode of Decoding Retirement (see video above or listen below). “Only 2% said they wished they had saved less.”

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Retirees highlighted other regrets as well. Many regretted not working longer and not delaying their Social Security claims — both of which would have increased their retirement income.

Another notable finding was regret over not securing lifetime income, such as through an annuity. Annuities provide a steady income stream, making it easier to manage expenses, especially as cognitive abilities decline with age.

“Many people are financially not as literate as they were when they were younger,” Mitchell said. “And having that steady income stream is and can be a real boost. People regretted not having done that as well.”

Read more: Fixed annuities vs. CDs: Which is better for your retirement savings?

In the podcast, Mitchell also addressed the increasing number of older adults who are retiring with mortgage debt, student loan debt, credit card debt, and the like.

According to Mitchell, older adults once took pride in being debt-free in retirement — so much so that mortgage-burning ceremonies were a common tradition in 20th century America.

A group of senior citizens with a dog look out over the seawall towards the sea on Sept. 17, 2024, in Sheringham, United Kingdom. (John Keeble/Getty Images) · John Keeble via Getty Images

“But that attitude is not true of retirees today,” she said.

More and more retirees are now entering retirement without paying off their mortgage — and in some cases, they even take on a larger mortgage when relocating to a sunnier climate or another state.

Credit card debt has also become a growing concern for retirees. And strangely, around 6% of retirees are now seeing their Social Security checks garnished due to unpaid student loans — either their own or those taken out for their children, Mitchell said.

“So debt is increasingly troubling the older population,” she said.

Read more: How to pay off credit card debt when your budget’s tight

Furthermore, Mitchell noted that high inflation has led to increased interest rates on various types of debt, including mortgages, credit cards, and student loans.

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“It becomes a very big challenge for people to meet that increase in debt payments, debt obligations in retirement,” Mitchell said. “So my advice is to try to really get your debt under control. Pay back everything you can. Destroy your credit cards if you find yourself unable to live within your means. Think about downsizing. Think about moving to a state with lower tax rates. All those things are ways to try to stretch your dollar a little bit farther in retirement.”

As for her current research, Mitchell is exploring financial advice and how financial advisers can better equip individuals with the information they need to make informed decisions.

“There’s a lot of financial advice online,” she said. “Social media is full of influencers providing financial advice, but some of them are conflicted. Some of them are giving terrible advice. I would like to see a better way of evaluating financial advice where people are getting what they need throughout their lifetimes.”

Mitchell said she reviewed financial apps that provide advice a few years ago and concluded that they were getting better at helping you decide how much to save, where to save, how to allocate your portfolio, and so on.

However, those apps struggled with key retirement decisions, such as the optimal time to claim Social Security, how much to allocate to an annuity, and how to factor in family dynamics.

For example, if one spouse had a defined benefit plan and the other had a defined contribution plan, the apps fell short in helping users optimize their savings and payout strategies together.

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“So I think that the whole financial advice field has to really be improved and supported,” she said. “Maybe the fintech and the large language models will help.”

She highlighted one fintech company, in particular, that is designing avatars to help individuals picture themselves in retirement should they follow one lifetime path versus another.

“And I think that’s brilliant,” she said. “It really has the potential to help us picture our future selves, and that’s exactly what we need in order to be able to look at the impact of our decisions on our future outcomes.”

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