WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:06.092 Hi, I'm Stacey Hyde and I'm back with another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less. 00:00:06.092 --> 00:00:15.394 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. 00:00:15.394 --> 00:00:18.402 And why do we compare? 00:00:18.402 --> 00:00:22.589 Humans are wired to compare ourselves against others. 00:00:22.589 --> 00:00:33.241 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? 00:00:33.241 --> 00:00:40.020 And you have to remember that Instagram and Facebook, that's someone's highlight reel. 00:00:40.121 --> 00:00:56.292 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. 00:00:56.292 --> 00:00:59.908 But are you really looking at the hidden cost? 00:00:59.908 --> 00:01:12.109 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. 00:01:12.109 --> 00:01:16.126 But the question to really ask yourself is what do I want? 00:01:16.126 --> 00:01:21.340 You know, I see people with new cars, but really, at the end of the day, I'm not a car person. 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:30.756 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. 00:01:30.756 --> 00:01:34.424 So that's neither here nor there, but that's important to me. 00:01:34.424 --> 00:01:39.900 So that's what I'm going to judge my vehicle on, and so you need to understand that. 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:44.167 And if you are a car guy or a car girl, that's okay too. 00:01:44.167 --> 00:01:49.796 You just need to realize that you need to carve out money in your budget for that. 00:01:49.796 --> 00:02:06.739 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. 00:02:06.739 --> 00:02:10.628 Basically, we just want to make more than everybody else. 00:02:10.628 --> 00:02:25.050 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. 00:02:25.050 --> 00:02:28.534 Are you moving toward what you want? 00:02:28.534 --> 00:02:42.376 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? 00:02:42.376 --> 00:02:45.087 What, what is your financial goal? 00:02:45.087 --> 00:02:58.798 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. 00:03:00.091 --> 00:03:06.883 My kids were in late elementary school and I knew we needed a minivan. 00:03:06.883 --> 00:03:09.772 I just did but I couldn't. 00:03:09.772 --> 00:03:15.539 And so we went and we put a deposit on one and then somebody made fun of me and I backed out of it. 00:03:15.539 --> 00:03:18.356 The Honda minivan was so popular at the time. 00:03:18.356 --> 00:03:21.008 I was able to get my money back and I bought another vehicle. 00:03:21.008 --> 00:03:21.406 It was awful. 00:03:21.406 --> 00:03:22.181 It did not accomplish what we needed. 00:03:22.181 --> 00:03:22.932 It was able to get my money back and I bought another vehicle. 00:03:22.932 --> 00:03:23.091 It was awful. 00:03:23.091 --> 00:03:24.997 It did not accomplish what we needed. 00:03:24.997 --> 00:03:26.536 It was hard to get in and out of. 00:03:26.536 --> 00:03:34.157 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. 00:03:34.157 --> 00:03:39.282 And then I went and got the van that I should have gotten in the first place and loved it. 00:03:39.282 --> 00:03:41.365 Yes, it was a minivan in the first place and loved it. 00:03:41.365 --> 00:03:41.810 Yes, it was a minivan. 00:03:41.810 --> 00:03:42.753 This is my PSA. 00:03:42.753 --> 00:03:44.372 You've got little kids. 00:03:44.372 --> 00:03:53.474 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. 00:03:53.474 --> 00:03:56.175 But that's just my PSA. 00:03:56.175 --> 00:03:58.758 It also gets better gas mileage and is cheaper to insure. 00:03:58.758 --> 00:04:04.222 So you have to understand does it meet your needs? 00:04:04.222 --> 00:04:06.395 And so you've got. 00:04:06.395 --> 00:04:11.332 And everybody's needs are different and everybody's goals are different, and that's okay. 00:04:11.332 --> 00:04:14.923 So how can we prevent this financial FOMO? 00:04:14.923 --> 00:04:25.017 Limit your scrolling Just another reason that being on our phones is something we should do less of and celebrate your milestones. 00:04:25.017 --> 00:04:30.622 If you had set a goal to pay off your credit card and you got it paid off, that's something to celebrate. 00:04:30.622 --> 00:04:36.622 The other thing is automating your savings and investing so you don't have to think about it every week. 00:04:36.622 --> 00:04:47.639 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. 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.651 And then find your money tribe. 00:04:49.651 --> 00:04:54.543 Find people that like to do the same things you do, that have the same values. 00:04:54.543 --> 00:05:00.343 Maybe they like to be outdoors, maybe they enjoy sport, maybe they enjoy going to free concerts. 00:05:00.343 --> 00:05:03.720 We have a place here at Memphis called the Everton Park Show. 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:19.661 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. 00:05:19.661 --> 00:05:23.680 So find your group, go forward. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:37.517 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. 00:05:37.517 --> 00:05:49.562 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. 00:05:49.562 --> 00:05:51.334 You're not seeing that. 00:05:51.334 --> 00:05:53.543 You're just seeing the flashy thing they posted. 00:05:53.543 --> 00:06:04.459 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. 00:06:04.459 --> 00:06:06.216 You're not seeing that. 00:06:06.216 --> 00:06:11.682 So make sure that you're not caught up in somebody else's iceberg. 00:06:11.682 --> 00:06:16.180 Focus on your own and focus on making your garden grow. 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:19.098 So thanks so much for tuning in. 00:06:19.098 --> 00:06:23.404 This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 minutes or less.