We like to think money is about math. Add some here, subtract some there, multiply it by your years in the workforce, and eventually you’ll land at the destination marked “enough.” But money is really about stories. The stories we tell ourselves about where we should be, what we deserve, and—most dangerously—how far behind we think we’ve fallen.
Nothing drives risk-taking like the nagging feeling that you’re not where you’re supposed to be.
Here’s how it starts:
You’re scrolling through your feed. Someone’s vacation looks suspiciously like a Corona commercial. An old classmate just posted about her third investment property. Your brother-in-law keeps talking about crypto and “getting in early.” You look at your savings, your debts, your aging car, and suddenly, you feel behind.
So far behind you worry you might never catch up.
And when you feel behind, logic starts to erode. Fear and urgency move in. And that’s when the world gets dangerous.
The Psychology of “Catching Up”
There’s an idea in behavioral finance called loss aversion—the pain of losing is about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. But there’s another, sneakier cousin at play: regret aversion. The pain of imagining all you “could have had” if you’d just bought Apple in 2002, or Bitcoin in 2014, or a house in 2010. That pain is fertile ground for scammers and hucksters.
When you’re desperate to catch up, you start looking for shortcuts.
And shortcuts are where the wolves wait.
Why Scams Work So Well on the Anxious
Scams don’t work because people are stupid. Scams work because people are human. The classic scammer pitch isn’t about logic—it’s about emotion:
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“You deserve this chance.”
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“You can’t afford to wait.”
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“Everyone else is getting ahead but you.”
Risky investments prey on this too. Unregulated crypto tokens, “can’t lose” stock tips, multi-level marketing dreams—all of them sell a single story: You can make up for lost time.
No need for patience. No need for decades of slow, boring compounding. Just a single leap, and you’ll catch up. Maybe even get ahead.
The Real Catch-Up Game
Here’s what’s hard to say, but you need to hear it:
No one is as far ahead as they look.
No one is as far behind as they fear.
The catch-up game is a mirage—an illusion that becomes more vivid the harder you chase it.
The people who build wealth slowly, methodically, almost boringly, are the ones who end up ahead. The more you feel like you have to hurry, the more likely you are to make mistakes that set you back even further. It’s cruel irony—when you try to leap ahead, you’re most likely to fall behind.
Patience Is a Superpower
If you want to build wealth, you have to accept the basic unfairness of life:
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Some people get luckier than others.
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Some people start ahead.
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Some have tailwinds, others face headwinds.
But everyone—everyone—faces the temptation to make a desperate bet when they feel behind. The trick is realizing that the slow, steady road is actually the shortcut.
It’s boring. It’s invisible.
It works.
The Only Way to Really Catch Up
You don’t catch up by swinging for the fences. You catch up by staying in the game long enough for compounding to work its magic. That means avoiding the promises of overnight riches and easy wins. That means ignoring the guy on YouTube who claims to have a secret, and the friend who swears you’re missing out.
The irony is, when you stop racing and start investing patiently—boring index funds, regular contributions, automatic savings—you stop feeling so far behind. You start seeing progress, slow and steady. And over time, you realize you never needed to catch up to anyone else. You just needed to focus on your own lane.
The world is full of people selling urgency. The greatest investors—Warren Buffett, Jack Bogle—sell patience.
Ask yourself which path has more proof behind it.
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