We tend to think of good consumer decisions as a matter of knowledge. However, even if you have plenty of knowledge, there are cognitive headwinds that can prevent you from taking full advantage of it.

Read on for quirky examples of practical strategies for overcoming headwinds we all experience, and the psychology behind why we need them.

My spouse once paid for a learning app subscription we could have gotten free through our library.

Since that mistake, we've discovered three more learning app subscriptions our library offers, two of which my nine-year-old uses daily (one for school and one for art classes), and one I use occasionally.

The resources were always there. We just weren't looking.

The headwind: Ownership blindness, or in this case, access blindness. Benefits we have access to through memberships and institutions often become psychologically invisible. They're part of the background.

Some of the benefits and services we have access to come in handy when we're in a pinch, but that's exactly the wrong time to be figuring them out.

For example, if your flight is delayed for many hours, causing you to miss a connection, or your bag is lost, you might vaguely know you have benefits from your credit card provider for these circumstances. However, this type of stressful scenario isn't when you're in a state to read the fine print. Familiarize........

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