You can remember the meaning of 后果 with this easy mnemonic:
<strong>After</strong> (后) reading Jack and the Beanstalk, Harry was given some seeds by his Dad to play with. What <strong>fruit</strong> (果) would those seeds bring? Harry's Dad didn't really think about the <strong>consequence</strong> of his little joke.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like can have an enormous impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.