Research from Scottish Widows has found that many British people are claiming to be too mentally fatigued to make the correct choices when it comes to difficult financial decisions, with a further 6.4 million people saying that they do not have time to do important life admin. 

2,062 UK adults were questioned in a recent study by YouGov following the pension provider’s latest advertising campaign, which encourages people to envision a positive future and take relevant steps now to make it a reality. 

The research found that 51% of those analysed had not made a decision on whether to purchase critical illness cover and 47% had never considered making changes to their pension. 

The analysis also found that 38% had not decided on whether they were going to take out a life insurance policy or not. 19% of that number confessed that they put off such financial admin because it took up too much of their time, whereas another 17% claimed it was because they found it too stressful. 

The retirement expert at Scottish Widows, Robert Conchran, said: “It’s easy to get caught up when dealing with day-to-day decisions in our hectic lives, but this is stopping many of us from spending the right amount of time making important decisions, which can impact our financial wellness.

“Getting to grips with your financial situation, like figuring out if you’re putting away enough for retirement, is a big decision to make about our future, but technology is making it much easier for people to picture their retirement – seeing your future self makes it much easier to make choices now than a bunch of complicated numbers.”

What to do

Professor Mark Fenton-O’Creevy, professor of organisational behaviour at The Open University Business School, said: “Important decisions about our lives can be easier to tackle if we create the mental space to deal with them […] The good news is that it is possible to make small changes to create more mental space for better choices.” 

At Questa, we’re all about making small yet crucial preparations in the present that lead to a prosperous financial future. It can be easy to get bogged down in the trivial decisions of day to day life. Not only this, but a good amount of energy can easily be used up at work, whether you’re in employment or running your own business. 

There is a big temptation to focus only on the quick pleasurable wins in life, leaving the financial decisions on the backburner. A good way to mitigate this is to visualise those often unenjoyable financial decisions as something that lends itself to your bigger picture.

You can begin by merely listing your ingoings and outgoings, moving on to thinking about what you want to do during your retirement. Taking brief moments to note down each aspect of your financial situation can help you create a realistic vision of the future.   

It’s crucial that you realise how your financial decisions can affect your future. Staying on top of your finances and sticking to a robust financial plan will help you to live the life you want to lead, both in the present, in the lead up to retirement and during retirement itself. 

Small steps made now lead to giant leaps in future financial wellbeing.

If you’re concerned about making those crucial financial decisions and want some expert ongoing advice, then Questa are exactly who you’re looking for. For more information on how we can help you to pursue your ideal financial future, don’t hesitate to get in contact.