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.
Sources: action
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]CNBC / MagnifyMoney — Nearly 40% of investors who pulled money out of markets in the last year regret it
Reference source
38% of investors pulled money from the stock market due to current events; of those, 40% wish they had stayed invested (≈15% of investors)
Excerpt
“"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."
”
Source data from
2022-05-16
Accessed
2026-04-26
Calculation
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
Reference source
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
Excerpt
“"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%)."
”
Source data from
2024-08-20
Accessed
2026-04-26
Calculation
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.
Sources: inaction
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
1/3 sources independently verified verbatim against the cited source
[1]Clarify Capital — The Financial Regrets Report: What Americans Wish They Did Differently↗ 1 other entry
Reference source
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
Excerpt
“"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."
”
Source data from
2023-06-15
Accessed
2026-04-26
Calculation
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
Reference source
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
Excerpt
“"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."
”
Source data from
2024-08-20
Accessed
2026-04-26
Calculation
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
Verified
↗ 2 other entries
Peer-reviewed
58% of US adults aged 60-79 affirm saving regret — the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life
Excerpt
“"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."
”
Source data from
2023-02-01
Accessed
2026-04-26
Verification
Excerpt independently re-fetched and confirmed word-for-word against the cited source during our grounding audit.
Calculation
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.
Caveats
The 48% inaction rate (Clarify Capital) and the ≈15% action rate (MagnifyMoney/CNBC) come from different surveys with different question structures, and they measure related but not identical constructs. The Clarify Capital survey named "not investing earlier in life" as the top-ranked biggest financial regret but attached no headline percentage to that rank; the 48% we use is its nearest stated timing figure — "nearly half (48%) said they should have started saving earlier" for retirement — so the inaction rate is a saving/investing-timing regret, not strictly a "wish I had invested in stocks" rate. The ≈15% action figure is derived from exit-regret (38% of investors sold during volatility, 40% of them regret it) because no reached survey reports a clean "regret investing early" rate — action-regret about having invested is not directly measured, and Bankrate's regret menu (retirement 22%, emergencies 18%, credit card debt 14%) contains no investment-loss category at all. The $40,000 net-worth gap is self-estimated, not actuarially calculated — people anchor on round numbers and may overstate or understate the true opportunity cost. The inaction surveys were conducted during or shortly after a historically strong US equity bull market (2009-2022, S&P 500 ~15% annualized). In a prolonged bear market or stagnation regime (Japan post-1989, US 2000-2010), inaction regret would be significantly lower and action regret higher. Term deposit holders in high-interest environments (e.g., 5%+ rates in 2023-2024) may have less regret than these surveys suggest. The Börsch-Supan et al. peer-reviewed finding (58.5% saving regret among 60-79 year-olds) confirms the directional pattern with stronger methodology but also shows that life shocks, not just procrastination, drive much of the variation. The delta of 0.33 is moderate and regime-dependent. Survey data are drawn exclusively from United States samples; satisfaction and regret rates in countries with different institutional structures — financial markets, tax-advantaged account structures, and capital-gains regimes — may differ substantially.
