Practical Lessons for Your Financial Life (Collection)

Step 1: Learn to Recognize the “What Might Have Been” in Your Language

When you become aware of this language, you can become more conscious of the way you use it. The “what might have been” has a way of punishing you for the past, including the parts of the past that were out of your control. You might say, for example, “I had a feeling that the market was going to go down. I should have sold my stocks.” Does that mean that in your investment strategy and your original asset allocation you were too aggressive to begin with? Does it mean you lost your focus and weren’t paying attention when your asset allocation rules got violated? Did you change your standards midstream and invest in products that weren’t part of your original investment strategy, ...