Practical Lessons for Your Financial Life (Collection)

2. Look Ahead to the Consequences of Your Actions

In The Princess and the Frog, the princess makes a number of critical mistakes. First, she neglects to protect something of great value to her—her golden ball. Second, she takes risks with this precious object and almost loses it as a result. Third, it’s apparent that, in addition to the obvious risk of playing with her ball by the well, she has no contingency plan for getting it back. What options are there for recovering the ball, in the absence of an enchanted frog?

At times, this can be the way some investors make financial decisions. They might make a series of critical determinations and then put them to the side, in favor of other pressing matters. These decisions might include how much ...