Playing the long game
Do you remember Aesop’s Fable number 87? It’s the one about a lucky farmer who owned a goose that laid a glittering golden egg every day.
Sadly, this wasn’t enough for the impatient farmer. He had a dubious ‘get rich quick’ idea to collect all the golden eggs at once by killing the goose and cutting it open. But there was no gold inside and the farmer had destroyed his source of future wealth.
So, what’s the moral of the tale, and what has it got to do with personal finance? According to Aesop, the moral is that “those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have”. In other words, greed doesn’t pay.
Now or later?
It’s unlikely the farmer worried too much about behavioural economics concepts, but he was guilty of present bias. He prioritised immediate and smaller rewards over much greater long-term benefits. If he’d exercised more self-control and emotional intelligence, he could have enjoyed the bigger financial rewards on offer through delayed gratification.
However, that’s not always easy. Living for the moment can bring spontaneity and joy, but it can also lead to procrastination, under-saving for retirement, and short-term decision making that conflicts with our long-term goals. To create financial security, we need to find the right balance between what feels good right now and planning ahead.
Future proofing
Killing the goose wasn’t a great investment decision. What can we do to help keep our goose alive and our long-term plans on track?
Save as much as you can, as soon as you can
Getting into the savings habit early is the surest way to build capital for the future. If you spend everything, you’re not optimising the potential of your earnings. Putting away as much as you can afford gives your money the chance for greater growth if it’s invested wisely, thanks to the power of compounding.
Keep enough money in cash
You put your future prosperity at risk if you need to dip into your long-term savings to cover emergency or short-term expenses, especially if markets have taken a dip, so make sure you have sufficient cash on hand.
Invest wisely
For the long term, you need to invest in assets capable of generating income and capital growth that outpaces inflation. Holding those investments in tax-efficient wrappers like pensions and ISAs can boost your returns because less money is going to the taxman.
With the right discipline, planning and advice, you’ll have plenty of golden eggs for the future.
An ISA is a medium to long term investment, which aims to increase the value of the money you invest for growth or income or both. The value of your investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise. You may not get back the amount you invested.
Approved by 2plan financial management Ltd on 11/06/2026
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