How Taylor Swift Boosted My Risk Appetite

Hello Everyone!

I know, I know, the article title is very click-baity, but it's important to note that today's edition is going to hit home for many of you because it can be the difference between getting what you want or missing out. Today's topic comes from the steps I had to take to get tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concert for my two middle-school aged daughters. 

As many know, tickets for Taylor Swift's concerts are impossible to get unless purchased through a reseller website (StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek, etc.), with StubHub being the most popular. She's been touring for about two years now, with most of her 2024 concerts taking place internationally. The Eras Tour will be ending later this winter in North America (Indiana, Miami, Toronto, and Vancouver to name a few). If you want to buy tickets to her remaining North American concerts, they start at $2,000 per ticket (not counting the resell platforms approximate 20% fee per ticket). Therefore, for a family of four, you will pay approximately $10,000 - and that's not including travel, hotel and food. However, if you want to watch her international shows, the tickets can go as low as $120 per ticket. 

The Backstory

My wife and I did a cost-benefit analysis to see her concert internationally and the result was much cheaper vs. the US. It would also be more rewarding as we get to visit another country. When we started our research, the Dusseldorf, Germany tour dates (July 17th to 19th) made the most sense timing wise. Here's how the sequence went:

Tuesday July 9th: 

• My wife and I researched concert ticket prices, airfare and hotel.
• We decided we will book everything the following day.

Wednesday July 10th: 

• We purchased tickets for the Friday July 19th concert through StubHub ($400 / Ticket).
• We booked our hotel and flights departing Wednesday July 17th and returning Sunday July 21st.
• Although we got a ticket purchase confirmation, we never received our tickets.

Thursday July 11th to Tuesday July 16th

• I called StubHub every day and was told the Seller needs time to transfer tickets.
• The Seller was given multiple deadline extensions (StubHub values the Seller, not the Buyer).
• I was consistently told that replacement tickets (or a refund) will only be offered on the date of event.

Tuesday July 16th

• My wife and I decided to buy a second set of tickets as a backup, which came out cheaper ($250 / Ticket) and were better seats.
• This is where I took the "risk". More on that later.

Wednesday July 17th (Day we fly out to Germany)

• StubHub restricts any further tickets to be purchased for her Dusseldorf, Germany concert.
• If I didn't buy the backup tickets on Tuesday, we would be left to depend on the original tickets, that we still had not received up to that point.

Thursday July 18th

• We land in Dusseldorf, Germany.
• I turn my phone on, and the backup tickets were officially delivered (sigh of relief and tears from my older daughter).
• Also, still no sign of the original tickets.

Friday July 19th (Day of the Concert)

• I called StubHub for a refund on my original tickets.
• StubHub provided me a link for replacement tickets or a refund.
• After clicking on the link, a message says: No replacement tickets available, please click here for a refund.

I was furious! Yes, I got my refund, but had I not taken the risk of purchasing the backup tickets, I would be in Germany without a chance to go to the concert - leaving my daughters distraught.

Second Guessing To Taking The Risk

What was the risk I was taking in the above scenario? It was eating the cost of the backup tickets had the original tickets come through. The risk was a potential loss of an extra $1,000.

Remember, my wife and I were trying to ensure that the international concert would be a cheaper experience, and so we second guessed ourselves over and over on whether we should purchase backup tickets.

However, it was when we thought about the two factors below, it led us to purchasing the backup tickets:

1. The first factor was that if we don't buy the backup tickets and do not receive the original tickets, then we are taking a really short, and expensive trip without achieving our intended goal (watching the concert). Therefore, better to lose $1,000 and be happy vs multiple thousands and be sad.
2. The second factor was that taking our daughters to a once in a lifetime experience is more important than the cost. In other words, we need to get out of the cost bubble and look at the positive, emotional impact our daughters would get.

When we tend to base our risk decisions solely on money, we can lose sight of what really matters.

The Takeaway

If you are a natural second-guesser and traditionally a risk averse individual, it's very easy to overthink and overanalyze scenarios. Most people in the world second guess and are risk averse. Personally, I tend to second guess a bit more in my older age because I have a lot of battle scars and have seen enough failure to know how it feels. That being said, life is short and it needs to be lived. I recognize that the backup tickets could have also fallen through and therefore, luck is a big part in the rewards from taking risks. However, once I say my daughters cry when Taylor Swift appeared on stage for the first time during the concert, I knew that playing it safe all the time isn't how I want to live my life and that "swinging for the fences" time to time is a necessity. There is no manual in taking risks, but there is a 100% chance you won't achieve anything if you sit on the sidelines and don't take chances.

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Thought Of The Week

A weekly thought to meditate, ruminate, and/or ponder on:

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”

- William Shakespeare