Most retired people have numerous regrets when it comes to retirement planning, including failing to put a plan together early enough in life.

A study of 500 retired people carried out in May found 15% (about one in six) regretted failing to start planning for their retirement early enough.

Key regret findings from the study for investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown were:

    Failing to put together a plan early enough was the top retirement regret (15%)
    1 in 10 retired people regretted not boosting contributions early enough
    3% wished they had kept a closer eye on their investments.
    A further 3% said they had not understood the different retirement options.

Despite the regrets, only 1% said they wished they had taken financial advice and 61% said they had no retirement regrets.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown said said the survey highlighted a broad lack of understanding among pension savers about their options, including the best way to access annuities or income drawdown.

Many may have also failed to make full use of pension tax allowances.

She said: “One in ten retired people wish they had set aside more for their pensions when they had the chance. Even boosting contributions by relatively small amounts over the years can have a big impact.

“A lack of understanding around investments and the different retirement options was also highlighted as areas retirees would revisit if they had the chance. It’s true that the retirement landscape can feel very complicated and many may feel they’ve either taken too much risk or not enough when it comes to their investment strategies.”

HL has more than 1.88m clients with £155.3bn invested (as at 30 June 2024).