Forget FOMO

If you don't already know, let me tell you about what the young are now calling FOMO — the “fear of missing out.”

I believe that the rise of all of our new FOMO feelings is due to social media, something that most of us have heavily indulged in due to COVID. Nowadays, everything is instant and on display right in front of you so that you feel envy and regret about how others have more or are doing more exciting things than you. The pandemic restrictions definitely have caused us to experience these feelings more than ever before.

In the past, when you ran into someone and asked them how they were, and they told you about their latest purchase or fancy vacation, you really had no time to feel that you were missing out on other people's awesome experiences.

But now we get to feel this instantly through our phones or on Facebook because we have been isolated and restricted in our social interactions. We have had over a year of seeing all those wonderful pictures of other people's lives on the internet, and now feel we somehow have been missing out on life and are no longer happy with what we have.

Now more than ever, there seems to be a pent-up demand for purchasing, upgrading, buying more and, of course, saving less.

Why not take a fast from FOMO? Turn off social media for a couple of hours, days or weeks. This will do wonders for making you feel better about your own life and stop the comparisons of your regular life to the polished versions of those online.

Remember that credit card companies build their business on you borrowing from your future. They want you to buy now rather than save to buy later. With credit, it's easy to fall for the instant gratification and convince yourself that later can take care of itself.

Remember that while those purchases may feel luxurious in the moment, they could give you financial stress that you don't deserve.

I am not saying that you need to deprive yourself, but if you are suffering from FOMO and feel you need to reach to credit to improve your situation, remember that enjoying a stress-free financial life honestly feels a lot better than any new purchase ever could.