How Do I Avoid Holiday FOMO?

Hey, let's talk about some common marketing tricks that build fear of missing out. That famous FOMO thing. Got some great ones. Think about those countdown timers. You've seen them. The sale ends in just two hours. What's it do?It creates urgency and panic. How about this one? Low stock alert. Only three left. Makes you feel like you'll miss out. I see that on Amazon all the time.How about these exclusive offers, members only. That's the deals that trigger the fear of being left out. And hey, how about this one?Those flash sales, those sudden discounts, trying to push quick decisions versus thoughtful one. Which leads me directly to our listener question today. So happy that I got this one.If you've got a question for the show, Remember, just ask Ralph.com. submit your question. But here's today's question. Ralph, every time a fly sale pops up, I panic. I miss a deal even if I don't need the thing.How do I avoid these sales traps? Yeah, you and me both. We're all going. We got to figure this out.Fomo, that fear of missing out, it's one of the biggest reasons people overspend in the holidays. Remember, the sale ends tonight, but guess what? The bill lasts a lot longer. Let's talk about that on today's show.

This is Financially Confident Christian. Your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Hello there. Welcome to the show. I'm Ralph.Thank you for joining me today to help you break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence as we continue to build joy for the holidays without going broke. And listen, without avoiding that fomo. I've been doing this for a while. I've been doing for decades.I say that it makes me feel old, but I've seen how marketing preys on emotion and it preys on urgency. And I personally learned that saying no to the wrong deal feels better than saying yes to regret. Man, I don't want that.January credit card redetermine. They tell you about my podcast promoter, Abby. We were talking about today's episode. We do our planning the prior week and Abby's in the Philippines.And she was telling me, she said, ralph, because I was really asking her about this film. How does that play out all around the world? She says, ralph, we got something that goes on here. It's called a mega sale. Listen to this one.Every month they have a mega sale. Like 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10. You get the idea. Every month there's a reason to go spend and she said, ralph. She said, I used to jump on every one of those.I was so afraid I was going to miss a great deal. But then she shared with me something. She said, ralph. Truth is, the excitement faded fast. But you know, it didn't fade.That guilt as credit card payments. And she said, ralph. I finally had to remind myself that not every discount is a saving. And the smartest deal.And Abby thumbs up to you and anybody else has done this. The smartest deal is walking away. Which leads me to today's quote. This comes from marketing expert Seth God.He says, if it's a real deal today, it'll still be a real deal tomorrow. See, the marketers don't want you to hear that. They don't want you to know. 24 hours and you're going to miss it.If it's a real deal today, guess what? It's still going to be a real deal tomorrow. So let's answer today's question. How do I avoid those sales traps? I've got some things to remember.Number one thing, you got to know this. Understand the game. You're in the middle of a game. You got to understand retailers are pressing your emotional hot buttons. They do it all the time.Guess what? They're doing it more right now. That's what the holidays is all about. I don't mean to be negative about it.Holiday for Christians is celebrating Christ. Don't miss that. But absent that, it's all about those emotional buttons. These marketers create deals that drive reaction.See, they don't want you to think about it. They want you to act immediately.Because if you got time to think, if you do the pause thing that we talked about on yesterday's show, you're going to think about. You go, wait a minute. That's not a reaction. Which leads me to this thing. Pause before you purchase. I don't know how many times I can stress this.Even waiting an hour, waiting to the next day, it breaks that emotional link. Because when you saw that commercial or when you were on social media and you saw that, I gotta have this. When you can think about it.When you break that emotional link, when logic finally catches up and you go, wait a minute, I don't need this. Yeah, I was comparing myself, but I don't really need this. You might be saying, okay, Ralph, how do I do that? Here's a great thing you can do.Control that inbox. I don't know how many on a daily basis. I get a ton of these emails, these store emails coming at me from all Directions.Yeah, I signed up for em because, well, maybe they offered a coupon or maybe there was this flash sale I had to have. So here's my encouragement for today. Unsubscribe to those things. Why expose yourself to these things?Listen, it's gonna be a little bit negative too, here, but listen, social media drives spending. I was on a call this weekend on a friend of mine show. We were talking about social media and what social media really does. You know what it does? It.It makes you spend more. Why does it make you spend more? Because it makes you compare yourself to other people. And you're like, well, I don't have that and I don't have this.That's what it does.So this time of year, especially, maybe limit your social media, because we don't need to live in that comparison trap, and social media just triggers that. Here's another key thing. Practice gratitude.It's so easy to focus on what we don't have, but you really want to beat this fomo, this fear of missing out. Focus on what you already have. God has given us so much. I'm thinking about my own life. I was getting dressed this morning.I've got a closet full of clothes. But I'll say, oh, I've got nothing to wear today. Like, what are you talking about, Ralph?You got a whole closet full of clothes, and I'm not picking on anybody. I got 10 pair of shoes. I got all these different. Yeah, for a man, I have a lot of shoes. Don't give me a hard time. No judgment here, right?But understand that gratitude. And finally, stop comparing yourself to everybody else. This is your race. This is your journey.Stop measuring your joy by someone else's shopping cart. Stop looking at Instagram and going, oh, look what they got. What you don't understand about it, they also have debt.They also are making other decisions. See, we don't see that when we see that. I call it the highlight film on Instagram or on Facebook. Oh, look at all this beautiful stuff, Ralph.I don't have those things. But you probably don't have the stress they have or the tension that they have.So just stop comparing yourself and focus on what the good order has already given you. Which leads me right to our Bible verse today. We actually got two again today. Philippians, chapter four, verse 11.It says, I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstance. Live in that. Recognize what you already have. I was on a call the other day with a lady in Kenya.She works at a private school in Kenya, and she's Working with a ladies group. And this just floored me. And this is one of the things.And I'm going to do a show here in the next couple of weeks to talk about exactly what they're doing over there. But just listen to this about contentment. She was working with a group of ladies and their goal was to save 15 cents this week. 15 cents.Think about that. That's impactful to them. Appreciate what you have. Live in contentment. Which leads me to first Timothy, chapter six, verse six.But godliness, here we go again with contentment is great gain. You want to find gain, Find contentment. That's what the Lord is searching for. Well, let's pray together.Lord, we come to you right now and we're seeking contentment. Lord, help us to find peace. Help us to find that contentment that your scripture speaks about.Help us to resist this pressure to buy that's all around us for things that we really don't need, Lord, that are just comparison traps and are way for us to compete with others that we really don't need to compete with. Lord, help us to say focus on eternal joy, not these temporary deals.The eight for eights and the nine for nines help us to find true contentment in our love for you and our love for our family. So do we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so you want your action item for today? Super simple.Go into your inbox and I want you to unsubscribe from three marketing emails today. Yes, the marketing people are going to be mad at me, but I don't care. My goal is to help you break that cycle. So go in there and unsubscribe.Here's another thing I'm going to encourage you to do for the next couple days. Take a 24 hour pause before you buy anything new. Hey, maybe make it 48 hours. Say, listen, I'm taking the Ralph pause.I'm not buying anything until I pause. Now, if this show's encouraged, especially today's show, I want to encourage you to do something for me. I'm trying to grow the show.I'm trying to reach more people. One of the ways we can do that is advertising. Advertising isn't cheap and your support can make a real difference.If you felt like you can help the show, I'm going to encourage you to go to our website. It's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/support. You'll have an opportunity there to buy me a coffee. Now listen, I don't even drink coffee.I drink tea. But this is a virtual way to support the show. And I want you to understand that your support is not going in my pocket. That's not why I'm doing it.Your support goes to help us advertise to reach more people so that we can be impactful, so we can help people break that cycle of financial shame that so many people are dealing with. So I'm going to encourage you one more time financiallyconfidentchristian.com/support. And as I close today, remember this.The best deal is in a discount. It's peace of mind. So don't let fear drive your spending. Choose contentment over comparison. Thank you for tuning in today.Let's all go out there today and be financially confident Christians. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and you take care today.