Nobody likes to wait in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

But, shockingly, reviewing and updating their retirement plans is an even less popular activity with employees, more than a third of whom would prefer to hit the DMV than to go over plan options.

And that’s even if they’ve had a major life-changing event that hit them in the wallet, according to a survey from Voya Financial Inc.

The survey found that, despite 53 percent of respondents saying they’d experienced such an event, 80 percent of respondents overall said they hadn’t set aside time to review or revise their retirement plan in the previous year and 63 percent admitted to spending either too little time or no time at all in making decisions regarding the retirement plan process.

And when it comes to retirement planning, procrastinators abound, with 26 percent admitting they’d stall longer on a retirement plan decision than they would for preparing to speak in public (23 percent), studying for an important exam (17 percent) or researching a personal loan (17 percent).

Instead, more than twice as many respondents admitted that in the last year they reviewed or made adjustments to their phone, cable and/or internet service (43 percent) or social media account profiles (43 percent—but 63 percent of millennials) than they did with their retirement plans (20 percent—but 17 percent of millennials).

And 37 percent said they would rather (that’s rather, mind you) spend their time waiting in line at the DMV rather than researching or reviewing their retirement plan options.

Neither age nor gender had much of an effect on how much time people spent on their retirement plans; slightly more men (22 percent) have reviewed or revised their retirement plans within the past year, compared with 18 percent of women.

In addition, men and women were equally as likely to delay making retirement decisions, due to the amount of thought required. Similarly, they are equally inclined to feel they spend too little or no time at all making retirement decisions (63 percent).

Nearly as many boomers (26 percent) as millennials (30 percent) said they would postpone making retirement decisions longer than they would other activities, while a slightly higher percentage (43 percent) of GenXers said they’d rather wait at the DMV than research or review their retirement plans; 34 percent of millennials chose the DMV, as did 35 percent of boomers.

Instant Insights /

Waiting in line at the DMV less painful than retirement planning

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