Keep Your Money Out of It

When you are figuring out your pot odds leading up to a decision in a poker hand, how do you do it? Do you figure out what your odds of winning the hand are by counting outs, then figure out how much money is in the pot and how much you are being asked to call, and then compare the two calculations? If you are, you are doing it right, but if you add a third step of factoring in what you have already invested, you are heading down the wrong path.