Written by Alex Seleznev, MBA, CFP®, CFA | May 15, 2024
When you first reach out to a financial planner, you rarely think about sharing your life story.
Even though your personal goals and values are paramount for the planning process, at least initially, the primary focus is to ensure you have a reliable financial plan.
As the relationship progresses, clients usually share more about their personal regrets, wanting to be understood.
Below are the top five regrets we hear from our clients.
1.) Spending too much time at work
This is perhaps the biggest regret that many of our clients explicitly share with us.
In fact, the eventual realization of this specific regret is what leads many of our new clients to seek our assistance.
To be clear, many of them enjoy their work, but they understand that if left unchecked, their career success can consume too much of their life.
2.) Not spending enough time with family and friends
When you spend too much time at work, it inevitably leads to not spending enough quality time with those that you truly care about.
Unfortunately, this realization frequently comes when it’s too late.
This is not to say that you cannot reconnect with those who are important to you.
There are just too many stories where people wished they had paused more frequently to consider what is truly important to them.
3.) Not being open enough with those around you
Our clients rarely admit that they have not been open enough with those around them.
However, we frequently observe this when we work with couples who haven’t mutually agreed on what is important for them individually and for their family.
When it comes to family finances, our planning meetings are when people feel safe to talk about their financial and life concerns.
After all, it can be challenging to help someone if you don’t fully understand their inner concerns and motivations.
4.) Not following your dreams
Burnout is a serious issue for professionals, particularly for those in high-intensity positions such as attorneys and doctors.
We frequently meet with clients who contemplate a career change and want to assess the impact of such a decision on their retirement plans.
In many cases, this conversation leads to an understanding that their actual professional or personal dreams are very different from what they have been engaged in for the past many years.
5.) Not saving more
Even though this list is not in any specific order, you wouldn’t be surprised that many clients share this specific concern with us.
The reality of undersaving is that it's more about not saving for longer instead of saving more.
Without delving into the numbers, those in their 30s and 40s do not have to save any enormous amounts to be financially successful.
They just need to save consistently and invest their savings wisely.
Unfortunately, the situation is very different for those who undersaved and are reaching their retirement years.
If you ever experience any or all of these regrets, please know that there are many people who feel the same.
Comprehensive financial planning won’t solve all of your problems, but it will certainly help you determine priorities and ensure you are moving in the right direction!