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COMMENT
Not surprisingly the festive season tends to lead to a prolonged bout of navel-gazing and this year is no exception. According to the latest research from the Alliance & Leicester's Wealth Tracker Index, almost half of Britons (47%) say their biggest financial regret of 2004 is failing to save enough money. This is backed up by the latest annual financial awareness survey from Royal Liver, which has been tracking changing attitudes towards personal finance for the last three years. Having pinned most of their hopes in recent years on rising property prices, people are finally beginning to realise that other forms of investment may be necessary to provide a bit more balance and flexibility now that the property market appears to be faltering. Consumers are also increasingly concerned about their future prosperity and the financial security of their family with issues such as education, critical illness and retirement cropping up as major concerns. This all sounds well and good but, despite these changing attitudes, people are still being slow to consider other means of providing the financial security they want so much. Nearly half of Royal Liver's respondents are unhappy with interest rate levels on savings, for example, and yet they're not prepared to contemplate stock market investment as an alternative. In spite of the fact that equity investment tends to produce better returns than cash over the long term, people still see the stock market as a gamble with 72% of respondents refusing to contemplate the stock market for fear of losing all or part of their investment. Also, while a significant proportion of respondents were worried about maintaining a decent standard of living during retirement (40%), as many as 46% had no pension scheme in place. What a contrary lot we are! But enough of the introspection - it's also time to look forward to 2005 and ponder on how to rectify the mistakes of the past year. Over the next 12 months, the Pension Commission will report back on what it believes the Government should do to ease the looming pension crisis. Hopefully, the resulting publicity will ensure that more of us put firm plans in place to save for retirement. The housing market will also, no doubt, remain one of the most significant factors in people's financial planning. If, as expected, the market cools it is likely that more people will start exploring other ways to make their money grow. And with the advent of the new Child Trust Funds in April, parents may start to think more carefully about investing for their children's futures. Royal Liver believes that the way the introduction of the scheme is handled by the Government will have a significant impact on savings habits in the years to come. But you don't need to wait for these events to happen before taking action. If you have regrets about failing to save enough over the last year, then there's no reason why you can't start to rectify the situation now. Start by: