A research from Abbey Mortgages has revealed that 15 million Brits suffered financially as a result of being unprepared for big life changes.
It has revealed that over the past two years, almost 62% of Brits have undergone a significant life change, which has impacted them financially, and at least one in every three of these has been unexpected.
Job changes account for the most common life change, with almost a third of Brits having moved jobs in the past two years. While 7.7 million or 17% of people are better off as a result of their new job, 5.9 million or 13% of people have taken a pay cut.
According to the research 21% of Brits experienced bereavement in the past two years, 16% moved home and 11% have had an illness that meant they or their partner were unable to work. A further 7% had a child, 5% received a windfall of some description, 5% got married and 5% divorced in the last two years.
Abbey’s research has showed that as a nation Brits are not great at preparing for the future as only 41% of those questioned expected a financially significant event to happen to them over the same period.
Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, head of mortgages at Abbey, said: We all know that it pays to be prepared but what’s interesting is just how many people experienced a big life change in the relatively short period of two years. Our research shows that 15 million Brits suffered financially because they failed to plan for these changes.