The Skipton Building Society has found that Britons spend longer each day on making a cup of tea than they do pausing to look at their finances.
The mutual’s new research, which came from interviews of 2,000 UK adults about their financial habits, found that 57% spend half an hour a week or less (29 minutes) looking at their finances. This equates to less than four minutes a day, about the same as brushing teeth or making a cup of tea.
The research highlights that we’re not just failing to look at our personal finances, but that few people are taking action. Just 22% say they take the time to actively manage their money each week, be that working out budgets, paying bills, looking at their internet banking, setting up new savings or investment products or visiting a branch.
Londoners spend the longest managing their finances each week (2.52 hours), well above the national average (1.9 hours).
56% say they don’t tend to prioritise their finances at all and 42% say this is because they have other more important things going on in their lives. When asked why they don’t prioritise their finances, 23% said they find it too boring and 16% blamed a lack of time for the reason they can’t pause to do this.
The research indicates that we are spending our time elsewhere during the week:
| Hours spent each week | Time spent each day | |
| Cleaning the house | 3 hours 52 minutes | 50 minutes |
| Doing the weekly shop | 2 hours 36 minutes | 33 minutes |
| Commute | 2 hours 77 minutes (4 hours 39 minutes for Londoners) | 39 minutes |
| Streaming content or browsing online | 11 hours 5 minutes | 1 hour 57 minutes |
Those aged 25-34 were the most likely to make time for their finances, with 51% doing so compared to 40% of over 55s.
Skipton’s data also explores how the amount of time people spend on actively managing their finances impacts how they feel – to identify the optimal time for a ‘financial pause’ that can lead to better financial health.
The data reveals that the people most likely to feel positive about their finances are the ones who are getting under the skin of their money regularly: doing so on average 2.7 times each week, for an average of 40 minutes each time.
Those who feel most negatively are spending longer on their finances each week (174 minutes), and typically spend on average one hour each time. Just one in five of those surveyed think that their finances are in a good state, with the research highlighting that many of us fail to find the time to pause and focus.
Dr Richard Wiseman, psychologist and author at the University of Hertfordshire, said: “The human attention span tends to be at its best for a maximum of 40 minutes at a time and after this point, our attention usually starts to wane. This new research from Skipton demonstrates just how difficult we tend to find long-term thinking. This is because short-term options usually give a quick emotional win, whereas longer term options, such as planning for retirement require more logical thinking, which we can find more difficult to process.
“By actively trying not to think about something, we often end up thinking about it more. Skipton’s research shows that we last thought about our plans for retirement 56 days ago so when it comes to finances and in particular looking at retirement, it would be far less stressful for people to think about it in the present, than avoiding it and spiralling into problems further down the road.”
Jacqui Bateson, senior propositions manager at the Skipton Building Society, added: “Looking at life ahead, it is sometimes hard to see beyond your next cup of tea or weekly shop. Unfortunately our research shows that we are simply not pausing to think about our finances enough.
“It’s understandable that we have other priorities in our lives but pausing to think now about how you will manage in later life will only benefit you in the long run. This could mean having enough money set-aside for that holiday you’ve always dreamed of or simply having enough savings to enjoy a comfortable retirement, but either way, stopping to think now will help facilitate these goals and make you feel better and more positive.
“At Skipton, it is our priority to guide people to think about their options for their financial future. Whether it is saving through a pension, an ISA or other means – we want to be there every step of the way.”