Nearly 3 in 4 Americans have a financial regret: Survey

Lane Gillespie, Tribune News Service

Managing your personal finances can be complicated. Even for experts, refining a budget, paying off high-interest debt and saving for the future is a matter of trial and error. If you’ve ever made a financial mistake along your journey, know it’s very common — 74% of Americans say they have a financial regret, according to Bankrate’s new Financial Regrets Survey. Although Americans are currently navigating a number of economic hurdles — including high tariffs, rising prices and sluggish hiring — the percentage of people who say they have a financial regret is actually down slightly from 77% in 2024. “While a majority of Americans still admit to harboring some remorse over their past financial decisions, the decrease is a step in the right direction,” Bankrate Financial Analyst Stephen Kates says.

Making financial mistakes and learning from them are all part of the journey towards financial health. If you’ve made a financial mistake, know you can learn from it and take steps towards recovery starting today.

Bankrate’s insights on financial regrets:

• Regrets are down slightly, but are still rampant 74% of US adults say they have a financial regret, down from 77% in 2024.

• Many people are struggling to address their financial regrets 43% of US adults with financial regrets haven’t made any progress in the past 12 months, up from 40% in 2024.

• More affordable essentials could make a difference in many people’s financial situations 30% of U.S. adults say cheaper essentials (such as gas or groceries) would most likely improve their personal financial situation in the near future.

Fewer Gen Zers have financial regrets this year: Saving for retirement, keeping a well-stocked emergency fund and avoiding high-interest debt are some of the most important steps you can take for your financial health. Accordingly, Americans’ top two financial regrets are not saving for retirement early enough (22%) or taking on too much credit card debt (15%). Everyone saves for retirement at their own pace, but a good benchmark is to save the equivalent of one year’s salary by the time you turn 30 and eventually have 10 times your salary at retirement age. However, as of the fourth quarter of 2024, the average 401(k) balance is only $131,700, and the average IRA balance is only $127,534, according to Fidelity. Assuming someone has both accounts, they would still have a lot of saving left to do to hit 10 times the average US salary of $67,920. With so many Americans having a fraction of what they need to retire comfortably, it makes sense that so many would regret not saving for retirement earlier.

“A lack of early retirement preparation is still a major regret for many Americans, especially older Americans,” Kates says.

Similarly, taking on too much credit card debt is common in part because of how easy it can be for credit card debt to spiral out of control. The average credit card balance is $6,371, according to TransUnion. If you were to carry a balance on your credit cards — as many people do — and only make the minimum payments at the average interest rate of 20.13%, you’d be in debt for more than 18 years and pay thousands more in interest. Avoiding carrying a balance on your cards is the best way you can keep from paying extra in interest.

Not saving enough for emergency expenses was the third-most common regret, but notably, the percentage has fallen since 2024 — from 18% in 2024 to 13% in 2025. Gen Xers and baby boomers with a financial regret were relatively unchanged year-over-year. A small percentage of Americans cited taking on too much student loans debt (5%), not saving enough for their children’s education (3%), buying more houses than they could afford (2%) or something else (15%). Generation-wise, the percentage of Gen Zers who said they regretted not saving enough for an emergency fund dropped from 26% to 12%, a bigger drop than any other generation. As Gen Zers struggle to balance their budgets amid high prices, student loan debt and unaffordable housing, they are also the likeliest generation to say they have no emergency savings, according to Bankrate’s separate Emergency Savings Survey. What’s more, Gen Zers are still young, and many may not have run into an expensive emergency yet. If they do, their attitudes toward saving for emergencies could change.

Additionally, 15% of women say not saving for emergency expenses is their financial regret, compared to 11% of men. Generally, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data analysed by Bankrate, more women than men say they are facing high prices of everyday goods, and they tend to feel worse about the economy and their shot at the American dream overall (including goals such as homeownership, being able to retire or having a successful career).

Progress on financial regrets has stalled: Year-over-year, relatively few people have made progress on their financial regret. Only 15% of people with a financial regret have made “significant” progress on it in the last 12 months, virtually unchanged from 2024, when 16% of people said the same. Similarly, 42% of people with a financial regret have made “some” progress on it in the last 12 months — 44% of people said the same in 2024.

Forty-three percent of people with a financial regret say they haven’t made any progress on it in the last 12 months, as of 2025. In 2024, 40% said they hadn’t made any progress on their financial regret. “Our data show that while fewer Americans report having financial regrets, those who do are making less progress in addressing them,” Kates says. “The same groups that saw the biggest declines in financial regrets, young Americans and those with the lowest incomes, are also reporting the least progress. This highlights the growing gap between those achieving their financial goals and those falling behind.”

Progress on financial regrets, by generation and income More younger Americans (Gen Zers and millennials) year-over-year say they haven’t made any progress on their regret. Specifically, more than 1 in 3 (36%) of Gen Zers with a financial regret say they haven’t made progress on it in the last 12 months, compared to 26% in 2024.

Over the past several years, rising prices have impacted Americans’ mental health, affected how they save and even influenced how they voted in last year’s presidential election. Now, 30% of Americans say cheaper essentials, such as gas and groceries, would likely improve their personal financial situation in the near future — more than any other factor suggested by Bankrate: Fifteen percent of people say labor market-related factors would improve their personal financial situation. Specifically, 11% cite better job opportunities and 4% cite better job security. Americans are thinking about their work situation more as the Trump administration’s higher tariffs and AI are coinciding with a narrower job market for white-collar workers. Also, employers are holding off hiring — US employers added fewer jobs in July than expected, according to CNBC. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also amended its figures to note that job growth in May and June was only a fraction of what it originally reported.

New graduates are having an especially difficult time looking for white-collar work, as some companies are replacing entry-level jobs with AI. Gen Zers are far less likely than older generations to say cheaper essentials would improve their personal financial situation. Instead, they tended to cite job opportunities and job security.