Investment Phobia: How to Overcome Your Fear of Real Estate Investing

Many of the most worthwhile things in life are scary at first. Investing is no exception. Investment Phobia, simply put is the fear of investing.

The thought of possibly losing money is a terrifying prospect. Most people are slightly hesitant when it comes to investing in real estate.

A big part of your concerns, and in fact one of the most significant obstacles for most new investors, is fear. Many have been found out to suffer unconsciously from what is termed investment phobia, even if they don’t know it.

It is the fear of putting in your money in any kind of investments. It is fear that you would lose your money if you invest or you are fearful of the fact that your money will be blocked and you won’t have it when you need it.

Read More: 7 Wonderful Nuggets: How to Make Money From Real Estate as a Nigerian Youth

But if you give in to fear, you’ll pass up some incredible opportunities.

So if you want to get ahead financially, you’ve got to ditch fear and start investing in your future.

Luckily for you, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to eliminate any “fear-based” hesitation and to subsequently become a successful investor.

But first, I’d like to point out symptoms of investment phobia in your thought process that you need to watch out for and how to tackle them on the spot.

Symptoms of Investment Phobia

Feeling you will need the money as soon as you block it for investments:

The lingering thought that what if you need the money once it is invested and blocked. What will you do if you cannot have your money when needed?

Solution: Well the simple thing is do not put all your money in the same investment type. Diversify and also keep money for meeting 3-6 months of your expenses liquid in a bank account so you have peace of mind.

Feeling your money maybe lost or gone for some reason:

The thought that your money will be lost or gone if you invest it somewhere isn’t something out of the ordinary.

Solution: The simple thing is to research in the kind of investment you are thinking of.

What area do you want to invest in? What are the prospects? What is the history of the property you want to invest in? Is there any legal dispute going on? What is the track record of the company you are investing though?

The results of this inquiries, if positive, will go a long way in assuaging your fear.

Feeling the markets will crash the moment you invest in them:

If you feel that the markets will crash as soon as you invest, then first thing the markets aren’t waiting for ‘your’ money per-se to crash. If they are going to crash, they will crash. If not, they won’t.

Talking about investments and researching but never actually investing:

You just keep on talking about investments and keep telling others what to do, but personally you do not; then it is a kind of subconscious fear of investments that stops you from doing it yourself.

Solution: Get over it and get investing. The earlier you start, the better it is for your money to grow.

Going through hundreds and thousands of investment articles but feeling none are reliable:

If you are in the habit of merely reading and analyzing things for investments without trusting any of it, then this is investment phobia. Either stop reading and wasting time or start taking action and for your own money’s sake… INVEST!

Using the bad investment choices of others to justify your indecision.

Sitting with friends and discussing how ‘someone‘ lost money by investing in ‘something‘ and justifying why you don’t invest.

This is typical to a lot of us. The biggest excuse for not investing and letting your money lie idle. Some person lost some money because they invested in something is the typical excuse for not investing and a BIG symptom of Investment Phobia.

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You are not bothered about your own money, but are more concerned about their mistakes and their losses. You never know what and how they planned their investments, do you?

Solution: Take the advice of a financial planner and start investing and not crib about that someone, somewhere.

Feeling insecure about investing in anything that is long term:

Feeling that investing the money for 3-5 years at a go will harm your financial life is a big mistake. Instead you should be worried about the nature of that particular investment and its past performance before investing your money.

Solution: Stop worrying and let your money live its life by letting it to grow the right way.

Treatment for Investment Phobia

If you have any of the above feelings/symptoms you are suffering from investment phobia and it needs to be treated. The treatment is actually very simple. Just go and invest. The moment you take the first step the paranoia will slowly ease out.

Investments can be quite complicated if you let them be and hence keeping them simple is essential. You need not invest in buying physical lands or houses, but can always take the Real Estate Joint Venture route for it. A beautiful example of a functional joint venture platform in Nigeria is Bersama.

If you adhere to this little tips and launch, you will have no reason to suffer from Investment Phobia anymore.