No. 3 regret of old age: 'invest better'

At sixty-two he sold his stocks in 2008 and never bought again. The loss scared him; for fifteen years he held only deposits. A friend kept buying a little every month, and last year that friend could leave half his retirement money growing another decade. "I did nothing so I wouldn't lose," he says. "That was the biggest loss." Among Americans over sixty, the third-ranked regret was investing better — 31%.