Over 1,000 Americans between the ages of 48 and 90 told Business Insider their biggest regrets in life. Those insights shed light on how perplexing retirement and planning for it can be.

Responses to an opt-in BI reader survey, along with interviews with 20 respondents, suggested that preparing for retirement while juggling life’s many obstacles is often a trial-and-error process. Many said they couldn’t crack the code on balancing how much to save, where to invest, when to retire, and how to be fiscally responsible when raising a family. Others said they took Social Security payments too early or didn’t pursue career opportunities that might have led to higher pay.

Janis Carroll, 79, said she was in the middle class for much of her life and made decent wages but that she’s now struggling to live comfortably on about $25,000 in Social Security payments each year and $35,000 in savings.

Though she retired over a decade ago with enough to get by, she said not being savvier with investing, moving too frequently, and draining an individual retirement account to buy a home she lost $50,000 on contributed to her fears about the future. She has considered returning to work, she said, but worries it would be too physically and mentally taxing.

“I don’t have the money to go to the movies or go anywhere,” Carroll, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, said. “I have no idea what’s going to happen to me if I’m going to have an emergency.”

In a Prudential survey, the median 55-year-old respondent said they had less than $50,000 in retirement savings. Brunswick Group conducted the survey between April and May and interviewed 905 Americans ages 55, 65, and 75. The National Council on Aging and the LeadingAge LTSS Center, which analyzed the data of 11,874 households from the Health and Retirement Study, found nearly 50% of Americans 60 or older said they had household incomes below what’s necessary for meeting their basic needs in their areas.

To be sure, this isn’t the case for everyone. In an April Gallup survey of adults living in the US, three in four retired respondents said they had enough money to live comfortably, compared with less than half of nonretirees. Gallup surveyed 1,001 people and published the results in August.

Many respondents’ regrets came from circumstances largely out of their control, from a cancer diagnosis disrupting financial stability to an unexpected divorce or layoff.

BI analyzed over 1,000 responses to a callout in previous stories asking about older Americans’ life regrets, in addition to dozens of emails reporters received, to determine four of the main regrets they had about their lives.

We want to hear from you. Are you an older American with any life regrets that you would be comfortable sharing with a reporter? Please fill out this quick form.

After navigating various job losses and undergoing cancer treatments, Jan Hoggatt, 69, is unsure she can ever retire and works part time.

“I wish I hadn’t assumed I’d be able to work into my 70s,” said Hoggatt, who lives in the St. Louis suburbs and receives about $1,800 monthly in Social Security payments.

Jan Hoggatt
Jan Hoggatt works part time to supplement her retirement income.Jan Hoggatt

She said she regretted not better preparing financially for an emergency, adding that she never knew exactly how to go about saving for retirement or what resources were available.

Dozens, like Hoggatt, said their parents, employers, or professors never taught them investing basics, adding that there weren’t many accessible resources for financial planning in their early careers. Some described saving for retirement as a trial-and-error process, saying they wished they had worked with a financial advisor or taken courses on growing their wealth.

Meanwhile, nearly every respondent said they wished they had saved more for retirement. Many said they lived too much in the moment and didn’t consider putting money into retirement accounts or investments throughout their lives.

Respondents also commonly said they thought they would be able to survive on Social Security benefits once they retired and wouldn’t need hefty savings. Well over one-quarter of them said they had little savings and received between $1,000 and $2,000 monthly in Social Security, which forced some to work part-time jobs or move into low-income housing.

“The benefits that we’re providing for people as they age are not keeping up with the cost of living,” Jessica Johnston, a senior director for the Center for Economic Well-Being at the National Council on Aging, told BI. She added that the asset limit for receiving Supplemental Security Income, which is $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples, hadn’t changed since 1989.

To be sure, dozens said they rarely had enough money to set aside each week for retirement savings. A few dozen said they were single parents working two or three jobs to put food on the table. Others said they went on disability earlier in life and had only enough income to pay rent.

Hundreds wrote that they were lost on how much to save, what to invest in, when to retire, and what to do financially during retirement. A few dozen said they wished they’d had more guidance on the pitfalls to avoid, how to live comfortably after working for decades, and what to do when a spouse dies.

Steve Watkins and his wife both worked for 50 years at their respective employers and retired with enough to live comfortably. Then his wife died in January.

Watkins, 74, receives about $3,100 a month in Social Security and has more than $1 million in savings, he said. But Social Security rules dictate that he cannot collect his wife’s $1,300 monthly benefits because her amount is lower than his. That lack of income worries him, as he doesn’t know how long his savings will finance his remaining years.

“You either have to go get another job to make up for it or suffer by losing that amount of money,” Watkins, who lives outside Los Angeles, said.

Over two dozen respondents said they claimed Social Security too early and received less money each month than if they had waited until their full retirement age to collect more. Some said they had to collect Social Security early because they needed the money, though others said they didn’t realize how much more they could’ve gotten if they’d waited.

Americans can collect Social Security as early as age 62, though benefits are reduced unless they wait until the full retirement age of either 66 or 67, depending on their birth year. People can delay taking their benefits until 70, which increases the amount.

Similarly, dozens said they regretted retiring too early without a sufficient nest egg. Then, they said, they needed part-time work to supplement their Social Security payments. A handful said that even though they waited until 65 to retire, they wished they had delayed retirement until 70 to pad their accounts and feel more financially secure.

Along with not saving enough, hundreds of respondents said they should have been more aggressive during their careers to secure higher-paying roles.

Dozens said they stayed too long in dead-end jobs and didn’t develop marketable skills. More than 100 respondents said they wished they had gone into higher-paying sectors or applied for more prestigious positions where they could have made more money.

People in corporate positions said they wished they had tried harder to get promoted. Over two dozen said they wished they had networked more outside their companies in case they lost their job; many said they’re now facing unemployment in their 50s and 60s.

At least a dozen said they should have stayed more up to date on the skills necessary for securing new positions, such as working with new coding languages or online tools.

Alternatively, some said they wished they had been less ambitious. A few dozen said they regretted leaving stable careers to start businesses, some of which failed and put their founders in the red. Michael R., 70, told BI he lost over $650,000 in savings and had to declare bankruptcy after his New York business crashed during the 2008 recession. He was granted partial anonymity because of privacy concerns.

Hundreds of respondents wrote they should have pursued education more. Though a few dozen said they lacked the money to attend higher-education institutions — or were not told about the benefits of college — those with the means said they wished they had gotten an associate or bachelor’s degree to better prepare for the workforce.

However, respondents were divided over student loans. Over two dozen said they regretted not attending college and taking out loans to pursue higher education, as it may have opened more doors for them. Another dozen said they wished they took out fewer loans or worked throughout college to fund their tuition. These people are still paying off loans from 50 years ago.

To be sure, at least a dozen said they regretted attending college and not going into the workforce immediately. They said college didn’t prepare them well for more advanced careers.

A few said they went to college later in life, which opened more doors for them professionally, though they said it was difficult attending classes while juggling a job and raising children. Still, many said this decision was fulfilling for advancing their careers.

Carol Brownfield, 48, said she’s going back to community college to become a counselor. The Washington resident said that she had a lot of experience from running a casino and resort but that she wanted to “better myself and do what I want to do.”

Carol Brownfield and her daughter
Carol Brownfield said she’s going to college at 48.Carol Brownfield

“Going back to school is for a career that pays better and just matches with my morals,” Brownfield said. “My daughter sees that. She says, ‘I’m right behind you, Mom,’ and she wants to do it too.”

Are you an older American with any life regrets that you would be comfortable sharing with a reporter? Please fill out this quick form or email nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

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Source: finance.yahoo.com