Are You Pricing Your future Incorrectly?

When it comes to making decisions, I try to make decisions that are going to give me the most flexibility and control over my future self, so I don’t become stuck. I still can make a bad decision but I think I’ve minimized them for the most part now.

My bad decisions tend to come from when I think the decision is going to have a much bigger payoff than what really is possible and much of that has to do with a lack of information. When I first played table craps in 2009, I made around $500, and I thought I was a craps god. I didn’t really understand the probability of the game, and I just got lucky. The next five times I played, I lost money.

Don’t let this be you.[/caption]

I sometimes see people who price their future incorrectly and spend too much money on a college education that gets them a job that is not going to be enough to pay for all their bills and student loans. Another example would be they buy something that they are never really going to use like a timeshare. It feels good emotionally at the moment to make that decision, but it can be super harmful in the future.

If we priced our future incorrectly, it could set us back financially and time-wise. It could also limit our ability to make future decisions. Bogged down by too much by student loans and we might not be able to work in the career we want to work in. Ultimately the choices we make in life are our responsibilities, and we are going to have to take ownership of them.

There is no certainty in any decisions that we make. When I joined the Marines, it was calculated decision to improve my future. I didn’t know everything I was getting myself into, and I say I got lucky in the fact that my job was in supply administration, and it allowed me to get stationed in Hawaii for three years in a combat support organization that didn’t deploy regularly. It allowed me to take night classes so that I could finish my degree faster on the government’s dime.

I could have easily been placed in 29 Palms or Camp Lejeune where it’s not as laid back as Hawaii and deployed more to Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s hard to say what would have happened if I would have been stationed somewhere else, but it would most likely give me more options and flexibility over my future because the Marine Corps gave me the GI Bill to pay for my college education. Now I’m not burdened by student debt because of that benefit.

Back in high school when I was accepted to Gonzaga University before the Marines, I saw that the tuition bill was over $30k a year. If I would have graduated with $120k in student loan debt, my monthly student loan payment would roughly be $1,302/mo assuming a 5.5% interest rate paid over 10 years. Having $60k in student loans would have a monthly payment of $651.16/mo. Both scenarios would be hard to deal with. I’m glad that I don’t have to deal with either scenario and I still have 18 months of my GI Bill leftover to get another degree if I choose so, and I have the flexibility and control that I desire.

I’m a big reader because I like gaining wisdom so that I can develop strategies to help me make better decisions with my life. If I have the right wisdom and strategy, I am more likely to price my future correctly. The average self-made millionaire reads two books a year. Warren Buffet reads over 500 pages a day. This is an excellent benchmark to hit with our reading because it allows us the opportunity to obtain a good life.

Don’t forget

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