A Clarify Capital survey of 1,000 adults named “not investing earlier in
life” as the single biggest financial regret Americans report, and found
that nearly half (48%) said they should have started saving for
retirement earlier. Respondents estimated their net worth would be $40,000
higher today had they started sooner — and one in three put the figure at
$100,000 or more. On the action side, regret about having invested is far
rarer and is not directly surveyed: the closest cited measure comes from
MagnifyMoney/CNBC, where 38% of investors pulled money out during volatility
and 40% of that group regret it — roughly 15% of investors who took an
active market move they wish they hadn’t.
Bankrate’s own biggest-financial-regret menu (retirement 22%, emergency
savings 18%, credit card debt 14%) contains no investment-loss category at
all, underscoring how far action-type investing regret sits below the
inaction regrets.
The mechanism is compound interest working in reverse as a regret amplifier.
A 25-year-old who puts $10,000 into an S&P 500 index fund and leaves it for
30 years at the historical ~10% nominal return ends up with roughly $175,000;
the same person waiting until 35 ends up with ~$67,000 — a gap that exists
entirely because of the ten lost years, not because of any difference in
skill or risk tolerance. Börsch-Supan et al. (2023) confirmed this pattern
with peer-reviewed rigor: surveying US adults aged 60-79, they found 58.5%
affirm saving regret — the wish to have saved more earlier. Notably, their
analysis found that life shocks (unemployment, health crises, divorce)
explained more of the variation than procrastination or psychological
traits, suggesting that saving regret is partly driven by circumstance
rather than pure inaction bias.
The caveat is regime dependence. These surveys were fielded during or shortly
after a 13-year US equity bull run in which the S&P 500 returned roughly 15%
annualized. Someone who invested early in Japan’s Nikkei in 1989 waited over
30 years to break even; someone who bought US equities in March 2000 was
underwater for a decade. The 48% inaction-regret figure is partly a product
of hindsight bias magnified by a historically favorable period. In a
high-interest-rate environment — such as 2023-2024, when US savings accounts
and CDs offered 5%+ — the gap between “invest early” and “keep in term
deposits” narrows considerably. The directional finding (timing regret favors
starting early) is robust across most long horizons; the magnitude is
era-dependent and should not be read as a universal constant.
Fuentes: acción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
[1]CNBC / MagnifyMoney — Nearly 40% of investors who pulled money out of markets in the last year regret it
Fuente de referencia
38% of investors pulled money from the stock market due to current events; of those, 40% wish they had stayed invested (≈15% of investors)
Extracto
“"38 percent of investors said they sold stocks last year due to a current event, and of that group, 40 percent said they wish they'd kept their money invested."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2022-05-16
Accedido
2026-04-26
Cálculo
MagnifyMoney/CNBC: 38% of investors pulled money out of the market due to current events, and 40% of that group now regret it. That implies roughly 0.38 × 0.40 ≈ 15% of investors took an active market move they regret. We use this ≈15% as the action-regret rate, because among people who acted on their investments the regret overwhelmingly runs toward wishing they had stayed in the market — not toward wishing they had never invested. The predominant action-regret is about exiting, not entering; no reached survey reports a clean "regret investing early" rate, so this exit-regret figure is the closest cited action-regret measure.
[2]Bankrate — Survey: 2 In 5 Americans Regret Not Saving Enough For Retirement Or Emergencies
Fuente de referencia
Bankrate's biggest-financial-regret menu is led by inaction-type regrets (retirement 22%, emergencies 18%, credit card debt 14%); investment losses are not among the top listed categories
Extracto
“"22% of Americans said not saving for retirement early enough is their top financial regret. 18% of Americans said they regretted not socking away enough money to cover emergency expenses. Other financial regrets included incurring too much credit card debt (14%) and buying more house than they could afford (2%)."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2024-08-20
Accedido
2026-04-26
Cálculo
Bankrate commissioned YouGov to survey US adults in July 2024, nationally representative via non-probability sample with quotas. The top financial regrets are retirement saving (22%), emergency savings (18%), and credit card debt (14%) — all inaction-type regrets. "Investment losses" or "poor investment decisions" is not a listed top category, which is context that action-side (regret-having-invested) rates are low; Bankrate does not itself supply the action rate.
Fuentes: inacción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
1/3 fuentes verificadas de forma independiente palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada
[1]Clarify Capital — The Financial Regrets Report: What Americans Wish They Did Differently↗ 1 other entry
Fuente de referencia
Nearly half (48%) of Americans say they should have started saving for retirement earlier; not investing earlier in life ranked as the single biggest financial regret, with respondents estimating $40,000 higher net worth had they started sooner
Extracto
“"Americans' biggest financial regrets were not investing earlier in life, overspending, and taking on too much debt. On average, they estimated their net worth would be $40,000 higher today if they had avoided their biggest financial mistake, while 1 in 3 believed they'd have $100,000 more in their accounts. Retirement accounts topped the list of investments Americans regretted not making sooner. Nearly half (48%) said they should have started saving earlier, including 56% of Gen X, 51% of baby boomers, and 35% of Gen Z."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2023-06-15
Accedido
2026-04-26
Cálculo
Clarify Capital surveyed 1,000 Americans (average age 41). The survey names "not investing earlier in life" as the top-ranked biggest financial regret but attaches no single headline percentage to that rank; the closest stated figure for the timing dimension is that "nearly half (48%) said they should have started saving earlier" for retirement. We use that verbatim 48% as the inaction-regret rate. The $40K net-worth gap (and 1 in 3 estimating $100,000 more) is self-estimated and likely conservative for those who kept money in term deposits during a prolonged equity bull market. Verified against the archived snapshot (web.archive.org/web/20250607215536).
[2]Bankrate — Survey: 2 In 5 Americans Regret Not Saving Enough For Retirement Or Emergencies
Fuente de referencia
22% of Americans say not saving for retirement early enough is their No. 1 financial regret — the top regret for six of seven years Bankrate has tracked it
Extracto
“"Not saving for retirement early enough has been the No. 1 regret among Americans for six out of the seven years Bankrate has asked about financial regrets. 22 percent cited it as their top regret in 2024. Only 15 percent of people with a financial regret have made significant progress on it in the last 12 months."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2024-08-20
Accedido
2026-04-26
Cálculo
Bankrate's 22% figure uses a different framing — "not saving for retirement early enough" — which captures the same timing regret but in a broader financial-regret menu. The lower figure reflects competition with other regret categories (debt, emergencies), not weaker sentiment. The persistence across seven annual surveys confirms this is not a one-year anomaly.
[3]Journal of Economic Psychology / Börsch-Supan, Bucher-Koenen, Hurd & Rohwedder — Saving regret and procrastination
Verificado
↗ 2 other entries
Revisado por pares
58% of US adults aged 60-79 affirm saving regret — the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life
Extracto
“"We defined saving regret as the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life, and measured this along with possible determinants in a survey of U.S. households where respondents were aged 60–79. We found high levels of saving regret: approximately 58% of respondents affirmed it. Married, older, healthier and wealthier respondents were less likely to report saving regret."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2023-02-01
Accedido
2026-04-26
Verificación
Extracto recuperado de forma independiente y confirmado palabra por palabra frente a la fuente citada durante nuestra auditoría de fundamentación.
Cálculo
Börsch-Supan et al. (2023), Journal of Economic Psychology 94. Peer-reviewed study using a nationally representative US sample of adults aged 60-79. The paper's preferred estimate is 58.5%; its abstract states "approximately 58% of respondents affirmed it." This corroborates the survey-based timing-regret findings (Clarify Capital 48%, Bankrate 22%) with a stronger methodology. The higher rate likely reflects that older adults have more hindsight and larger realized opportunity costs. Shocks (unemployment, health, divorce) explained more variation than procrastination, suggesting saving regret is partly driven by life events rather than pure inaction bias.
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La tasa del 48% de inacción (Clarify Capital) y la tasa del ~15% de acción (MagnifyMoney/CNBC) provienen de encuestas diferentes con estructuras de preguntas diferentes, y miden constructos relacionados pero no idénticos. La encuesta Clarify Capital nombró "no haber invertido antes en la vida" como el arrepentimiento financiero más citado, pero no adjuntó ningún porcentaje destacado a ese puesto; el 48% que usamos es su cifra de tiempo más cercana declarada — "casi la mitad (48%) dijo que debería haber empezado a ahorrar antes" para la jubilación — de modo que la tasa de inacción es un arrepentimiento sobre el momento de ahorrar/invertir, no estrictamente una tasa de "ojalá hubiera invertido en bolsa". La cifra del ~15% de acción se deriva del arrepentimiento por salir (38% de los inversores vendieron durante la volatilidad y el 40% de ellos se arrepiente), porque ninguna encuesta consultada informa una tasa limpia de "arrepentimiento por invertir temprano" — el arrepentimiento por haber invertido no se mide directamente, y el menú de arrepentimientos de Bankrate (jubilación 22%, emergencias 18%, deuda de tarjeta de crédito 14%) no contiene ninguna categoría de pérdidas de inversión. La brecha de patrimonio neto de $40.000 es auto-estimada, no calculada actuarialmente — las personas se anclan en números redondos y pueden sobreestimar o subestimar el verdadero costo de oportunidad. Las tres encuestas de inacción se realizaron durante o poco después de un mercado alcista de acciones estadounidense históricamente fuerte (2009-2022, S&P 500 ~15% anualizado). En un mercado bajista prolongado o régimen de estancamiento (Japón post-1989, EE.UU. 2000-2010), el arrepentimiento por inacción sería significativamente menor y el arrepentimiento por acción mayor. Los tenedores de depósitos a plazo en entornos de altas tasas de interés (por ejemplo, tasas del 5%+ en 2023-2024) pueden tener menos arrepentimiento del que sugieren estas encuestas. El hallazgo revisado por pares de Börsch-Supan et al. (58% de arrepentimiento de ahorros entre 60-79 años) confirma el patrón direccional con metodología más fuerte pero también muestra que los shocks de vida, no solo la procrastinación, impulsan gran parte de la variación. El delta de 0,33 es moderado y dependiente del régimen. Los datos de encuesta provienen exclusivamente de muestras de Estados Unidos; las tasas de satisfacción y arrepentimiento en países con estructuras institucionales diferentes — mercados financieros, estructuras de cuentas con ventajas fiscales y regímenes de ganancias de capital — pueden diferir sustancialmente.
