Fear of Missing Out
Fear of Missing Out in Daily Life
We all experience FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) at one time or another in our lives. It drives us into hasty purchases and risky investments we end up regretting later. Some of us learn from these mistakes, others repeat them over and over. How often do you buy things you don’t need simply because your friends have them? How often do they end up collecting dust in your house later? Your neighbor shows you a new 8K TV or a refrigerator with Alexa integration, and you start eyeing the same model despite having a perfectly functional appliance at home? How often does a clever salesman upsell you into a higher-end model by talking you into financing the purchase with credit?
Fear of Missing Out in Real Estate
Facebook and Instagram only make this problem worse by teasing you with upvoted photos of your friends’ new toys. This FOMO pattern influences larger purchases as well, such as cars and real estate. Seeing a friend buy new construction in a trendy neighborhood may convince you to start looking for similar houses as well. So you buy a house you’re proud of, your American Dream. This is when many of us find out about the hidden costs of this purchase. All of a sudden you’re on the hook for insurance, taxes, mortgage, association fees, and repairs. This is when many families find out that renting is cheaper, and your dream home has become a prison that shackled you into a 30-year mortgage. By the time most families have a little extra cash to invest, they’re usually in their late 40s. Their fear of missing out results in them missing out on their future. To make matters worse, because it was a new construction in a trendy neighborhood, the expected appreciation was already priced into your original purchase. The FOMO strategy that seemed safest at first ended up being the most expensive mistake.
Joy of Missing Out
We preach the same strategy we went through ourselves, JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). Our advice is to avoid social pressure and buy cash-flowing properties even if you’re still renting. It’s just another form of a retirement plan, but with a lot more flexibility than the one your employer provides. With this approach, you’ll find yourself financially independent in your early 30s, instead of late 40s, like most families. Instead of buying based on emotion, we recommend using data. Investomation allows people to buy based on economic factors that matter, such as job and population growth, and combine them with adverse factors that may hurt your return, such as taxes, crime, and unemployment rate. Our goal is to reduce your risk by minimizing uncertainty. We help you plan ahead so you can concentrate on your life rather than worry about your finances.