Many people do not understand the concepts of life expectancy and longevity risk, potentially leading them to under-save for retirement or not to purchase longevity insurance, which can lead to regret at older ages. We investigate alternative ways to increase the salience of both concepts, allowing us to assess whether these change peoples’ perceptions and financial decision making. Using randomly-assigned vignettes providing subjects with information about either life expectancy or longevity, we show that merely prompting people to think about financial decisions changes their perceptions regarding subjective survival probabilities. Moreover, this information also boosts respondents’ interest in saving and demand for longevity insurance. In particular, longevity information influences both subjective survival probabilities and financial decisions, while life expectancy information influences only annuity choices. We also investigate whether better longevity information changes peoples’ financial regrets in later life.