Saving By Paying Attention – Over-Analyzers, Part 2 of 4

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House elements

While house hunting, we trotted through plenty of previously owned homes and new developer houses.  We encountered fascinating rooms that were all pink, all red, or some other strange 60s, 70, or 80s fade…  The ultimate fade was when we looked at one house and the bathroom was decorated in hot pink with a pitch black commode and bathtub.  Groovy baby!    

Of course I had to check out the demographics for each house we looked at!  Is the school ranked high, what is the crime rate, what is the composite of the types of crimes, what are the county and city tax rates, how do the utilities compare to surrounding cities, are the houses in the area appreciating more than surrounding counties… etc.  The list was extensive!   

Yep, all told, it took us over 6 months before we decided on a house and community.  My poor wife, she started saying yes to any house we looked at after about 4 months into the process.  She was tired (sorry honey)!   

So was it worth all the extra time and analysis?  Maybe, that’s debatable!  Initially it was perfect, but things have changed in the community since then that makes it a bit different.   

So what does this have to do with my title “Saving by Paying Attention – Over-Analyzers“?  Everything!  We wasted gallons of gas, driving from house to house, not to mention all of the personal time wasted checking out house after house.    

Who was to blame for all of this extra house analysis?    

That Over-Analyzer was me!  I’m the one that took way to long looking at houses, waiting for that magic moment when I would exclaim EUREKA, this house is the ONE!   

The Over-Analyzer‘s biggest waste is personal time and gasoline driving from deal to deal, or in my case, house to house looking for the best, smartest deal!   

How can this weakness be combated?

Planning and time spend measuring twice and cutting once.  By this carpenter’s saying I mean “take the time the do the research before doing the footwork”.  Today especially, you can use google, yahoo, or bing to do the information gathering for you.  Heck, there are some sites now that take you thru a  virtual tour of some of the places you might be interested in!
    

I’m the same way at Christmas, when it comes time to pick out the Christmas Tree that we chop down (really saw down 😉 ) for the house.   

Are you or do you know someone like this?  If so, please do tell!  This isn’t as bad as the Implusers I talked about yesterday… but hey it adds up!  

-D

7 thoughts on “Saving By Paying Attention – Over-Analyzers, Part 2 of 4”

  1. Hey, new to your site and I really enjoy it :D! I’m not an over-analyzer, but my profession works with a bunch of them. And while it’s not on its surface as bad as the impulsers, it can be just a detrimental in the long run. The person who leaves a job and never moves his 401k because he hasn’t found the PERFECT place to put it. The person who won’t invest at all because they can’t find the right fund/company/stock to put the money in. The person who can’t replace his current car that’s breaking down because the car with all his necessary features doesn’t exist, even though the lack of a car might seriously impact him and/or his family. It can go on and on.

    And, in my experience, can tie in to impulse spending. Person refuses to replace car and car finally dies its death on the highway. Person has 60 mile daily commute (each way) so public transportation won’t cut it, and now has to buy SOMETHING, not now, but RIGHT NOW! And all the research leaves his head and he buys whatever, just to get to work. Can you tell I know this person?

    Things might start small, but when crap hits the fan, they can be just as bad to deal with!

  2. Hi Aj, welcome to my site!

    For a short time, I’ve would buy on impulse, then I swung to the other extreme where I would analysis things to death (especially stocks, I missed a lot of opportunities in the market).

    The Over-Analyzer is a close relative to the Procrastinator. The primary difference is that the Over-Analyzer doesn’t procrastinate with everything, mainly expensive or long time commitment things/items.

    I’ve had all three of these faults in my life and I’m still fighting with the over-Analyzer part. 🙂

  4. @FS

    True, better to be safe than sorry! Of the 2 extremes (Impulser vs Over-Analyzer) I’d hands down rather be an Over-Analyzer!!!

    Thanks for stopping by!

  5. I’m almost in this category… I think I’m more an ‘over-procrastinator’ if I’m honest.

    Not to take anything away from your articles here, but there’s actually some social scientific research that backs up what you’re discussing. (I’m saying this because you mentioned you made up the term ‘impulser’ with the first post).

    If you Google ‘satisfier’ that should lead you down the hole.

    Might be useful for future articles!
    .-= Monevator´s last blog ..Playing chicken with house prices =-.

    • I’ve never heard the term “over-procrastinator”, but I’m sure it’s pretty bad! After all procrastination is bad enough… Over-procrastinator sounds a bit scary!

      I think many of us out there are Over-Analyzers. I know I am, but mainly only with big ticket items (House, cars, TVs, Computers, and surprisingly our much cheaper Christmas tree). On the Christmas Tree decision (we always choose it the day we go of course), I have to say the tree we end up with is alway perfect for our house! The perfect size, shape, color and pine fragrance! 🙂

      I’ll follow your “satisfier” google lead, sounds like it would be an interesting read!

  6. Pingback: Saving By Paying Attention – Conclusion Part 4 of 4 | Money Reasons

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