How might your decisions be different? How might your life be different? Well, perhaps you would dump the guy you're dating after seeing he would eventually cheat on you. You might change jobs after noticing that your boss would gradually become abusive toward you, or change careers after seeing all the jobs in your current field would require upwards of 50 hours per week. Maybe you would not have kids upon discovering he or she would be born with an illness. Or perhaps you'd opt to move to a different neighborhood upon discovering your present one will see a rash of robberies in the coming years. Since we can't see into the future, it's impossible for us to always make optimal decisions. The best we can do is plan ahead and think carefully before making a big decision. Even then, what seems like a well-conceived decision today could turn out to be a disaster later on. The problem is that far too many people make decisions on impulse -- without at least consi...

We've all been at a crossroads at certain points in our lives where we've had to make one or more life-altering decisions. Here are just a few examples: Deciding whether to take one job or another  Deciding whether to ask out/date one person or another Deciding whether to have kids Deciding whether to buy a house and choosing among alternatives Deciding whether to get married or divorced Deciding whether to end an old friendship And so on... Many times, the decision is forced upon us because of circumstances beyond our control. For example, if we're laid off, we have no choice but to jump back into the job market and look for work. That, of course, assumes that nothing fortuitous happens in the interim -- like winning the lottery!) Then again, many of us make decisions that we later realize were poorly planned out -- if at all. I have friends who wound up having kids at a younger age than they'd anticipated. This in turn has put a serious financial str...