Hi, I'm Stacey Hyde and I'm back with another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less. And today I'd like to talk about financial FOMO, fear of missing out or, in this case, comparing your money situation to someone else's. And why do we compare? Humans are wired to compare ourselves against others. Why do you think we scroll Instagram or Facebook or look around and advertisements are geared to make us feel like we're missing out if we don't have the latest thing? And you have to remember that Instagram and Facebook, that's someone's highlight reel.
Speaker 1:You're not seeing what's happening in real time, although you may see a lot of new clothes, a fancy new car, a really cool vacation or somebody just won big on crypto, and you're thinking, well man, I should have done that. But are you really looking at the hidden cost? Because financial FOMO can cause us to make bad decisions to purchase something or invest in something because we feel like we're going to be missing out. But the question to really ask yourself is what do I want? You know, I see people with new cars, but really, at the end of the day, I'm not a car person. I just want a reliable car that's going to get me from point A to point B and hold all my junk, and my husband likes to tell me I have a lot of it. So that's neither here nor there, but that's important to me. So that's what I'm going to judge my vehicle on, and so you need to understand that. And if you are a car guy or a car girl, that's okay too. You just need to realize that you need to carve out money in your budget for that. And what's crazy is there have been studies that show that somebody would rather make $70,000 when their friends make $60,000 than to make $100,000 when their friends make 60, than to make a hundred when their friends make 120. Basically, we just want to make more than everybody else. It's not really about us, but what I'm going to tell you to do is look to you, what is important to you, and so what you've got to do if you're going to have a financial win. Are you moving toward what you want? Are you moving towards getting closer to the point where you become work optional, or when you can take that vacation, or you have the money set aside for your kids college, or you have the money for the down payment on the house? What, what is your financial goal? So and that's what's so important, because you want to anchor back to that I'll tell you a case of a time where I didn't anchor back to mine and I gave in to peer pressure.
Speaker 1:My kids were in late elementary school and I knew we needed a minivan. I just did but I couldn't. And so we went and we put a deposit on one and then somebody made fun of me and I backed out of it. The Honda minivan was so popular at the time. I was able to get my money back and I bought another vehicle. It was awful. It did not accomplish what we needed. It was able to get my money back and I bought another vehicle. It was awful. It did not accomplish what we needed. It was hard to get in and out of. Nobody liked it, but I had to live with it because I couldn't get rid of it for at least three years because it just didn't make any sense. And then I went and got the van that I should have gotten in the first place and loved it. Yes, it was a minivan in the first place and loved it. Yes, it was a minivan. This is my PSA. You've got little kids. A minivan's great, because you're not gonna have to worry about them, opening the door into the car you're parked next to when the spots in the parking lot are too small to begin with. But that's just my PSA. It also gets better gas mileage and is cheaper to insure. So you have to understand does it meet your needs? And so you've got. And everybody's needs are different and everybody's goals are different, and that's okay. So how can we prevent this financial FOMO? Limit your scrolling Just another reason that being on our phones is something we should do less of and celebrate your milestones. If you had set a goal to pay off your credit card and you got it paid off, that's something to celebrate. The other thing is automating your savings and investing so you don't have to think about it every week. Just make it automatic, because our brains can only make so many decisions at a time before they just get tired, and so if you just automate it, you don't have to think about it again. And then find your money tribe. Find people that like to do the same things you do, that have the same values. Maybe they like to be outdoors, maybe they enjoy sport, maybe they enjoy going to free concerts. We have a place here at Memphis called the Everton Park Show. They have all sorts of free concerts, some very low cost ones, and that's a way that you can get out, enjoy music, hang with your friends and also have a fun entertainment on a weeknight or a weekend. So find your group, go forward. And so what you want to do is you want to focus on your scorecard, not somebody else's, because when you look at that fancy thing they're posting, you only see the tip of the iceberg. You don't see that they have all these payments and they're freaking out because their account, their checking account, has $5 in it and they don't get paid for another eight days. You're not seeing that. You're just seeing the flashy thing they posted. Or when they bought that house but then something went haywire, like they had to have a new roof and all of a sudden they're all upside down and they're worried they're going to be foreclosed on. You're not seeing that. So make sure that you're not caught up in somebody else's iceberg. Focus on your own and focus on making your garden grow. So thanks so much for tuning in. This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 minutes or less.