How Millennials Can Fix These Financial Regrets Before Retirement
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Millennials may have more than their fair share of financial regrets. After all, their early earning years were affected by the Great Recession and a pandemic.
Financial regrets can sometimes just be little blips in the journey, and other times big setbacks on your path.
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GOBankingRates spoke with several millennials about their financial regrets and offered some advice from Andrew Van Alstyne, a financial advisor with Fiduciary Financial Advisors, to address these issues before millennials head down the final runway to retirement.
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Student Loan Debt
Many millennials took out student loans to attend college and have weathered frustrations as the Biden administration’s plans to forgive these debts have been challenged and blocked in courts.
Teresa, a 43-year-old parent from California, took out around $18,000 in student loans and now owes more than $30,000.
“Student loans are predatory. The interest rates are super high, and children don’t understand the implications of taking out long-term loans that you can’t discharge with bankruptcy or any other reason,” she said.
Even as a person with a disability, she has been unsuccessful in trying to get her loans discharged.
“If I had to do it over, I would have worked more and done less extra curricular activities to pay for school. I would have taken more classes at the JC. I also would have applied for more scholarships after my first year,” she said.
Van Alstyne advised that the best bet with student loans is to pay that debt down as quickly as possible.
If you qualify for any type of loan forgiveness program, take advantage of it, he said. However, don’t just wait around to see what the next presidential administration will do. “You don’t want to bank on something coming to fruition true. Just bite the bullet, suck it up, deal with it, get it off your balance sheet, stop paying the penalty, which is the interest that you owe, and then progress forward with the other goals you have in life,” he said.
The quicker you can put that debt in the rearview mirror, the less traffic you’re going to have in front of you to really kind of accelerate to what you want to accomplish, he said.
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Additionally, check with your employer to see if they have any loan repayment programs.
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Letting a Spouse Manage the Finances
Deb, an artist from California, has one big regret: letting her husband handle all of the finances and financial decisions while she raised her son (not his child). “I didn’t ask questions about money and trusted him to make the right decisions about all of our finances,” she said.
When her husband left her years later, she learned that he’d been lying about how much money they actually had, limiting what she could spend and spending the extra on affairs with other women. “I now know it was spousal financial abuse,” she said.
As someone who didn’t have a lot of guidance around money growing up and who struggles with dyscalculia, she didn’t feel she got the education necessary to know how to handle her finances differently.
“Never let anyone else handle your money for you. Always have some savings so you can leave a situation when you need to,” she said.
Van Alstyne said that this is not an unusual scenario. “It’s something that I hear pretty frequently as well, and it goes across every age group, demographic generation. It’s giving up power in such an important aspect of life,” he said.
He said that if your spouse or partner wants to take the reins of financial responsibility, communication is key.
You want to ask for a snapshot of the finances each month, discuss savings goals and budgets. “And don’t just take one word responses; review statements, review budgets together. It’s not something that you necessarily need to do every day, but once a quarter at least least make sure that you’re all on the same page,” he said.
Accruing Credit Card Debt
Perhaps one of the most common financial regrets people of any age have is accruing credit card debt, and the typically high interest that goes with it. Sarah T., a medical secretary from California, regretted that she and her spouse accumulated nearly $50,000 in debt over many years, paying several hundred dollars just in interest each month.
“I finally got a consolidation loan, paid them off and now I pay the statement balance every month. It’s on auto pay, so I can’t forget,” she said. “I refuse to carry any debt other than my home. It’s way too expensive to borrow money.”
She has taught her kids how to use credit responsibly. “They have great credit, and they aren’t in debt,” she said.
Van Alstyne said that if you have significant credit card debt, the first thing to do is cut up your credit cards.
“If you have a massive amount of debt, you have already exhibited that you’re not able to properly manage them at this point in time, so forget they exist. For right now, you need to be accountable to yourself, but you’ve lost the ability to use debt as a financial instrument,” he said.
Then, depending on the exact figure, he said sometimes it makes more sense to pay off smallest to largest, so you’re getting momentum in that sense of accomplishment and achievement along the way.
“Other times, I like to go from the highest interest rate to lowest. Pay down the ones that are costing you the most to keep that line of debt in place, pay those off, and then work your way towards the ones that aren’t quite as costly,” he said.
Not Buying Private Homeowners Insurance
Nicole K., a 40-year-old nurse in California, bought a condo in 2007 because people told her it was a good investment. Unfortunately, she and her partner did not buy homeowners insurance but relied on the insurance offered through their homeowners association.
“Then the housing market crashed, the condo burned down and we were displaced without compensation for 15 months, which led to us doing a short sale in 2010,” she explained. All told, she said they lost over $100,000 and it took a financial toll on them for the next decade.
Van Alstyne pointed out that a home is typically the largest asset most people have, and it’s imperative to protect it. “That’s the place that you’re going to have to come back to. That’s a place where you are going to make family memories. That is where your sanctuary should be, so you’re going to want to put the proper protection in place to make sure that that is there at all costs,” he explained.
He said it’s key to get as much insurance coverage as you can afford, and to make sure you read your policies thoroughly so you know exactly what is being covered.
Get Some Professional Advice
As millennials head toward retirement, even though it may still seem a long way off, Van Alstyne recommended having a conversation with a financial professional just to get a sense of where you sit.
“You can feel like you’re adrift at sea with no point of reference, so at least have a conversation with a neutral third party to at least get your bearings, see if you’re on the right track,” he said.
But since millennials are still in their major earning years, Van Alstyne advised not to worry too much about regrets and try to enjoy life too.
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