Regrets? We’ve had a few (our love lives, health, childhoods, finances, smoking and careers...)

WE spend three quarters of an hour dwelling on our regrets every week, a study has found.

The most common cause for remorse is not having saved more money, followed by a wish that we had put more effort in at school.

Starting smoking, not exercising enough and not seeing more of the world also feature in the survey’s top five regrets.

Three quarters of those surveyed said they did not believe it was possible to live a life without regrets, perhaps explaining why, on average, we spend 44 minutes a week thinking about things we could or should have done differently.

Our main areas of regret are our love lives (20 per cent), family (18 per cent), career (16 per cent), health (14 per cent) and finances (14 per cent).

On average, we have two main regrets in life – and 1 per cent of those interviewed laid the blame at someone else’s door.

But two thirds of those interviewed said they thought their regrets had led them to act more positively and that they had learnt from their mistakes.

A quarter of the 2,000 people questioned by Electric Zebra, an electronic substitute cigarette firm, said their regrets had made them into the person they are today. Common regrets range from not getting on the property ladder sooner to not being more promiscous when younger. Others include regretting not telling someone we loved them and wishing we had repaired a damaged friendship.

The top ten regrets were: 1) Not having saved more money 2) Not having worked harder at school 3) Not having exercised more 4) Not seeing more of the world 5) Taking up smoking 6) Not staying in touch with people more ) Not having taken more care of our bodies when younger 8) Not having appreciated an elderly relative more before he or she passed away 9) Not having taken more photos of experiences growing up 10) Getting married too early.