Sometimes I’m afraid.

(Big shock, no doubt)

  • I’m afraid of snakes
  • I’m afraid of heights

But looking over the big checklist, many childhood fears are no longer an issue.

  • I’m not afraid of dogs
  • I’m not afraid of the dark
  • I’m not afraid of doctors
  • …or needles
  • …or hospitals
  • I’m not afraid of death
  • I’m not afraid of the future

A chance conversation clued me in the other day that many adults never overcome their childhood fears. I always thought growing up meant growing out of things, but apparently, that’s just not so. For her, the boogieman is just as real today as he was on her 4th birthday when the monster under her bad came out for a visit. Watching a steady stream of those cable shows where people walk around old houses with flashlights to eerie music, stand in a draft and ‘feel’ something probably doesn’t help.

Most fears develop through trauma and are overcome through confrontation, however innocuous. I lost my fear of dogs when the mister kept  bringing them home, my fear of the dark by getting up and sitting outside after midnight, my fear of doctors and needles during nursing school, my fear of death by learning to trust Someone Else, my fear of the future by living through hard times. (Mrs. B has no intention of jumping out of airplanes or taking up snake handling. Therefore, it’s doubtful the list will be eradicated until she sprouts wings and flies to Ireland.)

 Who’s Afraid?

Fear cripples, distorts, reshapes our view of the world. Fear makes everything ugly. Adrenaline kicks in, our attention sharpens. A thousand pleasant circumstances can dance around the periphery, but the object of our fear is all we see. Someone with a crippling fear of snakes takes a walk in the woods and suffers palpitations until returning to the car. They didn’t enjoy the violets by the edge of the trail, or the birds twittering about or the waterfall sparkling in the sunshine. (Ask me how I know…)

And the Moral of This Story

As beginning investors, we regularly face:

  • Fear of taking risks
  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of loss
  • Fear of the unknown

We’re afraid for a very good reason…

Because we’re ignorant.

We don’t understand basic business principles or financial literacy or compound interest or  plumbing repair. We have no idea what renovations really cost or what tenants might accomplish with a can of spray paint (pictures to follow) or how silly we’ll look at the family picnic when Uncle Seymour drills us on rates of return.

Knowledge is Power

There is no substitute for an education. If yours is lacking, start today, right this minute. Invest a hundred bucks and buy a financial calculator and a stack of books (See JoJo Recommends above.) Get yourself a tool box and a set of Time Life Home Repair series (or the equivalent thereof… ask Terry. He knows tools and stuff.) Run around the block waving your hands like a girlie-man whilest squealing, ‘I *am* smart enough to read a financial calculator handbook! I *can* learn to run an amortization spreadsheet!’ (And take photos so we can all enjoy.)

Fear is overcome through knowledge. 

  • not hype
  • not rhetoric
  • not motivational cheerleading

..no matter how fancy the guru’s PowerPoint presentation happens to be.

A blind leap of faith off the cliff of ignorance, hoping for a cushy landing on a healthy bank balance is beyond silly. And yet, the chants of ‘Just Do It!’ ring from every quarter of the real estate investment world.

Please, please don’t listen.

For more on our method of self education for all things financial/real estate, see the article here.

Popularity: 17% [?]