The Pain, Anxiety, And Remorse We Go Through Can Be Too Much

There is a pain which most of us will have to deal with at some point in our lives. It is not necessarily a physical pain, rather a psychological one. It is a feeling of defeat, confusion, anxiety, and stress. Most often it is aggregated as remorse. The remedy for this particular condition is often time.

The Diagnosis

If you were to type your symptoms into a site such as WebMD, you would likely receive a list of ailments which do not do what you are feeling justice. After all, these are more depressive by nature. The ailment I am referring to is remorse. Remorse can be for just about anything you have done for which you feel is wrong. Now, since I am assuming you are a good person by nature, I am also assuming you will not do anything wrong on purpose. However, there are decisions we make which make us feel like we have done something terrible. The most common one is buyer’s remorse. For those of you who don’t know what this is, or who have never dealt with it, let me fill you in.  Buyer’s remorse is the feeling you have bought or sold something and have made a terrible decision. You second guess yourself and wonder if you have made the right decision. Ultimately with time, these feelings fade.

The Causes

There are many causes leading to buyer’s remorse. Most notably, buyer’s remorse manifests during times of big purchases. For example, when I bought my first house, I had tremendous buyer’s remorse. I couldn’t believe what I had done. I was terrified I had made a huge mistake and I was going to fail. Obviously, with time I learned, it wasn’t a big deal. I figured out how to manage the mortgage and all the other bills. Buying a car is another one which others tend to have remorse towards. I already mentioned in a previous post, I am currently looking for a new truck. However, I LOVE my Audi. I am afraid I will make the wrong decision in picking out a new truck or I will regret giving up what I already know and love. Yes, it is absolutely possible to have buyer’s remorse BEFORE even buying something!

The Cure

As mentioned, there is no simple cure for this remorse. It will take time and self-analysis to understand what you did was fine. You will be able to overcome whatever it is you are dealing with from your decision to make a purchase. There is a caveat to this though. If you made a purchase for which you were not in a sound mind (i.e. an impulse buy) you will need to take more of a drastic approach. In this situation, you will likely have to take whatever you bought back (assuming you still can). If you are not able to return said item, you should sell it as soon as possible. Keeping it around or thinking you can manage it is just another lie you are telling yourself. Sell it.

The Prevention

As with any other medical diagnosis, prevention is often the best way to keep the ailments away. With regards to buyer’s remorse, the best prevention is having a budget! I know this is a shocking revelation, one for which you would never expect from me (sarcasm). In all seriousness though, a budget will help ward off all the bad vibes you would get with buyer’s remorse. Once you have created a strong working budget, it will fight for you. When you give it a financial conundrum you are dealing with, it will take the issue a chokehold it into submission. The end result is an easy and clear answer to what you need to do. Thus, it buying something is weighing heavy on you already, such as buying a new truck, then you can give the information to your Hulk of a budget. As all good Hulks do, they will smash the “puny” problems and provide a simple idea of what the next steps are going to need to be.

Final Note

Ultimately we will all have to deal with this terrible monster called buyer’s remorse. The best thing anyone can do is to first understand it is inevitable. You ARE going to deal with it at some point. Second, planning out everything instead of impulsivity will be crucial. The more impulsive you are, the more you are going to feed that remorse beast. Use a budget! This is still one of the best tools in your arsenal. If you do not have a budget yet, go and check it out here! Do it now! Fight back!