Why You Must Know the Rules of the Financial Games You Are Playing

I have found over the years that most of the heartache people experience over finances stems from a lack of knowledge about the complex financial games they play.
I’ll try to illustrate this using a picture of a die. Notice the four dots on the front side of the die. How many dots are on the opposite side of the four dots? If you’re familiar with dice, you probably know. The answer is three. What is on the opposite side of one? The answer is six. The rule with dice is that opposite sides of a die always add up to seven. When you know the rules, it is really easy to predict what will be on the other side of the die.
Another example of knowing the rules can be found in the game of tic-tac-toe. If you have played it before, you can pretty much predict who will win within the first few plays of the game. If both parties know how to play tic-tac-toe, usually there won’t even be a winner; the end result is a tie. When you learn the rules of the financial games you play, even if you can’t always win, you can at least have an equal advantage with the lenders, vendors, and institutions with which you are playing the game.
When you know the rules of the game you have a much higher chance of winning or at least playing even.  To learn the rules I suggest learning more about yourself by considering the following: