Investors Share Their Biggest 2022 Regrets, 2023 Goals

Three-quarters of investors in a new survey said they regret how they invested in 2022, and 85% plan to change how they do so this year, SoFi, a digital personal finance company, reported this week.

SoFi administered the survey to 1,000 adult investors in the U.S. on Oct. 5. The sample did not include known SoFi members or a SoFi member data set, according to the company.

Reflecting on Investing in 2022

In 2022, investors endured wild market volatility, rising interest rates and a crypto winter. Notwithstanding that rough ride, 93% of respondents reported that they continued to invest.

However, many investors regretted some of their choices over the last year:

• Not buying more cryptocurrency at lower prices: 18%
• Not buying more stock when the market started to decline: 16%
• Not selling stock before the market started to decline: 15%

White-hot inflation was a huge challenge to the economy in 2022, but respondents were divided on how that affected their investment strategies over the last year despite the toll it took on people’s finances.

Thirty-nine percent said that despite inflation, they wanted to invest more, with Generation Z investors making up the biggest group within this segment. Thirty-three percent reported that inflation made them want to leave their investments alone, and 28% said skyrocketing prices made them want to invest less.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents acknowledged that they made impulsive investment decisions in 2022 because of market volatility, including 31% of Gen Z, who admitted to acting rashly.

The survey found that because of stock market volatility, 90% of participants invested in non-stock-market-related investments last year. Crypto was by far the most common investment, reported by 48% of investors.

Between a quarter and a fifth of respondents also invested in CDs, private equity funds, REITs, gold or other commodities, and government bonds.