My FOMO Made Me Go Broke — Here’s What I Learned

I used to pride myself on being anti-materialistic. Drunk on a newfound love of ’60s rock music and youthful, pseudo-hippie sensibilities, I pledged to remain disaffected by money’s influence, comfortably aloof from what I perceived to be a fruitless, one-sided relationship with something so fleeting. Unfortunately, only 17-year-old high school students living with their parents have the luxury of detesting money with such conviction.

While young adulthood rendered me incapable of remaining as down-to-earth as my teenage self would have liked, I came to regard money as nothing more than a necessary evil. That said, I chose to spend it with reckless abandon, as if negligence was the yardstick by which to measure my detachment. Armed with my first steady paycheck and an acute case of FOMO, I went to summer music festivals, bought clothes I couldn’t afford, and went on expensive weekend getaways. By saying yes to everything, I liked to think I was, in turn, saying no to a life bound by budgeting and personal finance apps.

What I was doing, of course, was digging myself a debt-shaped hole and proceeding to lie in it. While my experiences (and my stubbornness) are unique to me, I know I’m not alone in my financial faults. But having experienced the pitfalls that come with living beyond your means, I’ve resolved to walk away from my financial faux pas with a newfound sense of control over my bank account — a challenge that calls for a two-pronged approach that’s both social and financial:

SET A BUDGET

While painfully obvious, there is truly no way to take control of your finances without first putting an organizational system in place; throwing caution to the wind will no longer cut it. At the most basic level, this includes confronting the beast head-on and taking an explicit inventory of your income and your expenses; not even an impulse chipotle burrito bowl should go unaccounted for. If you have to record your spending on a daily basis via the iPhone Notes app, so be it — the more meticulous you are upfront, the more headache you’ll save yourself in the long run.

This is where personal finance apps can come in handy — Mint, for example, links up to your bank account and tracks overspending according to a budget that you create. It will even send you alerts when you go over in any one category. If you’d prefer to make a budget the old-fashioned way, sans smartphone, try sticking to the 50/30/20 rule. In this case, 50% of your income should go to needs (rent, utilities, phone bill, groceries, etc.), 30% should go to your wants (concerts, dinners out, etc.), and 20% should go directly into your savings account.

CREATE A SOCIAL CALENDAR

In an effort to remove FOMO from my financial decision-making process, I began taking a full inventory of my social engagements ahead of time — especially before the busy summer months. Knowing exactly what lay ahead — socially and financially — made me less likely to blurt out a last-minute yes! to expensive weekend trips and Tuesday night concerts. This would ideally go hand-in-hand with the budget you’ve created for yourself, allowing your “expenses” category to realistically fluctuate depending on upcoming social engagements. While you can never truly prepare yourself for everything life will inevitably throw at you, having some sort of a plan in place will crush the financial blow.

To finish reading how to prevent your FOMO from causing you to go broke, head over to MyDomaine.com. Have you had an social-induced money woes? Tell us your stories and tips to handle below.