Economic and finance are often quite different things, particularly when people have an incorrect view of economics that create incorrect predictions.
On the other hand, with an accurate view of economics, one can make decisions with important financial ramifications. The example I'm pretty happy about is I predicted stagflation and then paid a substantial penalty to break my mortgage and refinance for another 10 years (the maximum you can practically finance for in Canada) (edited) [8:10 PM] Most people at that moment were on variable rate mortgages, a minority would go fixed-rate, but nobody for a 10-year. This prediction has turned out perfect since we've gotten the predicted stagflation and now the bank is basically paying me to have a mortgage in real dollar terms.
Another good example is being able to suss out bubbles. I stayed away from a couple major bubbles because I predicted their collapse. In doing so, I lost money in the short term, but saved a lot of money in the long term because I ended up in a more stable region instead.