In life it is the decisions you make which will shape your future. But when faced with a difficult decision, how do you decide which course of action to take? Personally, I have a set of principles that guide the actions in my life. If something I am doing doesn’t fit in with one of these principles then it needs to be cut.  Think of yourself as a ship sailing on a foggy day with low visibility. The principles are the map and compass that you use to plot your course and avoid danger when you have a hard time seeing where to go. Some decisions are easy. Many times it is obvious if something will be good or bad for you. If it fits in with your life or not. Others it is hard, and especially in these times, it is useful to have some concepts to run things by.  The guiding principles that I am using in my life are as follows:  Set Long Term Goals Having goals and a long term focus is crucial. This is the load baring structure that enables the framework of principles to grow strong. In economics we are taught, “in the long

Compound Interest. It’s a simple idea. Leave a dollar in an account which pays interest. Say 10% (we all know that a 10% interest account doesn’t exist right now, but still). Come back next year and you will have $1.10. Forget about it for another year and suddenly you are earning 10% of $1.10 and not $1. By the end of year two you have earned an extra $0.11, vs $0.10 the first year. Incredible right?! I know it doesn’t sound very impressive. But let me explain.  Where time is your friend. With compound interest, time is your friend. You may have heard the story of the king and the chess playing sage that goes a little like this:  A great king who loved chess travelled across the land to meet a chess playing sage. In order to motivate the sage to play a game with him, the king offered any reward the sage could want. The sage asked only for a few grains of rice distributed in the following way. If he won, the king was to place a single grain of rice on the first square of the chess board on day one. On day two he was