A new survey reveals that 1 in 5 Baby Boomers—those 65 and up—say they have the same regret in life.
They didn't travel more.
The survey was conducted by Censuswide for British Airways, a company that wants you to travel. It also wants you to pay $60 for a seat assignment. So take all that as you will.
But the research is backed up by other experts. An excellent article by Catey Hill in Marketwatch rounds up some of the data.
Hill writes: "Those 65 and up say the same thing: Research into the lives of 1,200 older people over a 10-year period by Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University, found that elders often regretted not traveling more while they were young. 'Based on my studies, I can almost guarantee you one thing: If you don’t do it now, you will wish you had traveled more,' Pillemer writes. 'To sum up what I learned in a sentence: When your traveling days are over, you will wish you had taken one more trip.'"
What scored higher on the regret scale? Censuswide found it was losing touch with old friends. And Pillemer says respondents were sorry they worried so much when they were young.
You're also more likely to regret the things you didn't do than the ones you did. By that maxim, you might as well travel—you won't be sad later if the trip stinks.
