Making Life Truly Memorable

Here are the top 5 regrets of the dying, according to one study (1):

- They wished they hadn’t worked so hard.

- They regretted living a life that wasn’t true to themselves.

- They wished they had stayed closer to family and friends.

- They cursed themselves for not allowing more happiness in their lives.

Interestingly, there’s not a single mention of fitness or money, which often dominate short-term New Year goal planning. On deeper reflection, it’s clear that money itself doesn’t bring true joy—sure, it helps to an extent, but joy comes from something much deeper. Still, it’s easy to let money take the lead in our priorities, with thoughts like, “If I just get a little bit more…”

Life is really about finding your purpose and living a life you can truly enjoy. Of course, compromises are part of the journey, but if we can nudge ourselves a little closer to our ideal life, we might avoid these common regrets.

The PERMA model for human success offers a great structure to reflect on:

- Positive Emotion: What do you find fun? where do you get your kicks from?

- Engagement: Are you using your abilities in immersive tasks e.g. work

- Relationships: Are you maintaining meaningful connections with others? friends, family, etc

- Meaning: Are you working in the service of something bigger than yourself? charitable causes/ helping those in need/ supporting family etc

- Accomplishment: Are you striving to develop yourself daily? Getting better at some aspect of your life each day.

Where could you improve? Could you add more fun to your life? Are you fully using your skills? When did you last connect with friends or family? Can you do something today to make a difference? How about challenging yourself—learn a new skill, cook a new recipe, learn a new sport….

While money can support a certain lifestyle, it’s ultimately up to you to make life truly memorable. Lean in and live life without regret.

Keith Boyes

Chartered Financial Planner

Managing Director

Spentwell

1) The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departed by Bronnie Ware (extracted and published in The Soul of Wealth by Daniel Crosby)

Inspired by Daniel Crosby for this piece which has been extracted and paraphrased from his excellent book The Soul of Wealth. All credit to him here and we’ve added our Spentwell spin to relate this to money and life for you.