Life's complexities mean we're failing to plan

Almost half of us think life is just too complicated. The weight of endless choices means we're not getting anywhere. A quarter of people are putting off looking for a job, one in five are putting off planning for retirement, and a third are so worried about life decisions that they are losing sleep. The fact that we're all missing is that we don't really need to worry so much, because there is no right answer.

The research, from Ikano Bank, was released to promote the simple bank it is launching in the UK next year. It found that overall 45% of people in the UK think life is too complicated. This rises to 50% in London and the South East and 53% in Northern Ireland.

Just the basic admin involved in running our lives and homes seems overwhelming - and only 16% of adults under the age of 24 find it simple. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that so many people don't have the time and energy left to plan for the future. As a result, one in five are putting off looking for a new job, one in five cannot face sorting out a pension, and one in six cannot face sorting out a will.
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Why?

Part of the problem is that we have too many choices. In a famous study by psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar, called 'the paradox of choice', they looked at people buying jam, and discovered that those who were offered a choice of six were more likely to buy than those offered a choice of 24 - because they were too overwhelmed by choice.

The second problem is that we think there is a right and wrong answer to things like pension planning, and that we need to understand and make enough decisions to find the perfect solution. The behavioural economists say that this paralyses us, because we are so afraid of making the wrong decision, and overwhelmed by the work involved, that we do nothing.

Instead of thinking of it as the kind of question with a right answer - like 'what's 2 plus 2?' - we should think of it as a question with an array of answers like 'where should I go on holiday?' There's not one perfect holiday: there are just a range of holidays, which you will enjoy more or less, depending on how well they suit you.

Calculate your retirement income

Similarly there's not one retirement, there are a range, which you will enjoy more or less. The solution, therefore, isn't to find the perfect pension, job, will and so on, it's to find a good one, and make a start. You can change your mind later on down the line: change jobs, alter your will, switch pension investments or increase or decrease your contributions. But the fact that you have made a start means you are already better off than someone who was too overwhelmed to do anything.

Of course, a world where everything was simple would be great - where bills paid themselves, budgets magically came together, and the perfect boss knocked on the door of our perfect home to offer us the perfect job. In this world we would have a very small number of options - with one right answer. In the real world, however, we just need to stop worrying and get started.