For many U.S. adults, the idea of thinking about havingenough money for retirement may be moreexciting than it is scary, according to analystsat Lincoln Financial Group.

The opposite appears to be true of thinking about unexpectedmedical bills.

Lincoln has included data on how consumers feel about differenttypes of financial planning in a new survey report. The Radnor,Pennsylvania-based company based the report on results from anonline survey of 2,500 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.

Methods

Lincoln asked consumers, “When thinking about your financialfuture, what most excites you?”

The company also asked, “When thinking about your financialfuture, what most scares you?”

The list of exciting situations was different from the list ofscary situations, but there was some overlap. Lincoln putthinking about “having enough retirement money” and “affordinghealth care costs” on the exciting list. The company put “savingfor retirement and “unforeseen health expenses” on the scarylist.

Consumers could choose several “most excites” and “most scares”options when they took the survey.

The Exciting List

The survey participants told Lincoln that they think the idea ofplanning for having enough retirement money is about as exciting asthinking about paying for travel, and more exciting than thinkingabout many other financial topics.

Retirement money thinking tied with travel money thinking forfirst place in the “excites” rankings.

(Image: Jeffrey Collingwood/Thinkstock)

About 46% of the participants said the idea of thinking aboutretirement money excites them, and 46% said the idea of thinkingabout travel money excites them. Those two planning topics beat outthinking about buying a house or making more money at work, buy acar. Only 19% said thinking about buying a house excites them.

Survey participants younger than 30, or ages 75 and older, werethe only ones who were more excited about the idea of thinkingabout travel money than about retirement money. Participants inevery other age group said they were more excited about thinkingabout retirement money.

Health care cost planning ranked in the middle in terms ofexcitement: 32% of the survey participants said thinking abouthealth care costs is exciting.

The Scary List

Thinking about affording health care costs ranked first on thelist of scariest financial situations: 46% of the participantslisted that as a top fear.

“Saving for retirement” ranked second, with 35% of theparticipants identifying that situation as scary.

The Exciting-to-Scary Ratios

The Lincoln survey attracted 1.3 participants who said thinkingabout retirement money is exciting for every participant who saidthinking about that topic is scary.

The survey attracted 1.4 participants who said thinking aboutunexpected medical bills is scary for every participant who saidthinking about affording health care is exciting.