Posted by Tim Stobbs on February 6, 2009
Well the other day I finally made a decision on something that bothered me a bit until I thought about it. I made a choice that increased my carbon footprint, uses more natural resources and costs me more money. So what did I do? I’m now driving my car to work most days.
WHAT?!? After all my talk of using the bus is a good thing, what the hell happened? Well in a nut shell I had an offer than changed the math. You see typically driving to work each day was a stupid idea because of the costs involved. When parking runs you about $120/month and then about an extra $60 in gas, it’s damn more expensive than $57/month for a bus pass.
Yet when my work offered me a parking space just behind the building for a total of $37/month (a combination of cash and taxable benefit) and the price of gas has dropped to the point it will cost me about $40. Suddenly I had to think about the other factor in all of this: my time. So for about an extra $1 a work day I’m now saving close to an hour of my day. In my book that’s a fairly good deal. (I’m also aware that secondary costs are not included in this calculation like more frequent oil changes and other wear on the car.)
So other factors that helped my decision were that fact parking spaces at my work don’t come up that often. Typically most employees have to wait four or more years to get a spot. I happen to just get lucky and get one after two months. The other factor was my wife is going to go back to work in May so from that point onwards the car won’t be used during the day all week long.
So how has it been? Well I dislike having to warm up a car and scrape windows again, but I love getting home in about 15 minutes after work instead of the usual 30 to 45 minutes. I’ve also realized if I can car pool with someone I might be able to reduce my costs a bit and cut back on the environmental impacts as well. So I will be looking into doing that. Yet regardless I’m still happy with the decision, I enjoy that extra time with my boys in the evening.
So how about you, have you ever made a ungreen choice and didn’t mind it at all?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on February 5, 2009
You know what in personal finance blogs we tend to be a little over judgmental. We seemed to forget most PF bloggers are realistically freaks or oddities of nature. No one in the right mind is going to save 30% of their take home pay year in and year out for 20 years without a few screws missing. In my personal case, I know this. I value my future free time A LOT more than most other things. That’s not to say I don’t make some completely irrational spending decisions at times and spend money now, but mostly I’m saving for future spending.
So it was rather refreshing for me to read this post at a blog called Fabulously Broke. Basically the blogger points out after spending $550 on clothes while still paying off debt: it’s my life, my decision and I’m ok with it. To that I raise a glass in a toast: to your Way.
That in the point of all this is to find your Way. My Way won’t be your Way. That’s ok and actually in my case I would prefer you find your Way over mine. You see my Way works for my family and it tuned to the way I like things. I certain don’t expect you to love reading, have an compulsion to write and be so completed addicted to coffee that if you took it away from me I might cry. It works for me and I’m ok with it.
So when you hear someone who spends an insane amount of money on things, try not to judge if they pay cash. After all it is their money and people have different values. As long as you are not using credit to pay for your life I really can’t complain about you taking a trip, buying a car, or picking up a bottle of wine on the way home from work. It’s about having choice and being aware of the choice. I dislike automatic spending on things you didn’t even want, but if you know you really want it go ahead.
We only live life once. Find what works for you and don’t feel guilty about after reading these blogs. PF bloggers are not the average, so don’t compare yourself unless you feel it is valid to your life. So how about you, what do you spend money on that you never complain about or regret?
Posted by Tim Stobbs on February 4, 2009
Over at the Globe and Mail there is part of an article that is driving me a little crazy. It’s called Save Your Money or Save the Economy (pick one). It’s like most other articles that I’ve seen lately that seem to say that we shouldn’t be all saving our money, because we need to spend to get out of this recession.
What drives me nuts about that logic is overspending and too much debt is what got us partly into this mess. Saving over the long haul might actually do more good in my mind. Over the short haul I agree its going to hurt the economy, but it might be required.
So how would savings help? Let’s refresh our memories here. Not too long ago a savings rate of 10% was common and they world was not crying out for people to spend more. It was a balance of some savings and some spending. The economy was fine. So why can’t we be there again? From my point of view what we are seeing in the economy is the removal of overspending that has become so common for a while that people consider it normal when it really isn’t. Once that overspending is removed of course the economy is going to shrink, it shouldn’t have been that big in the first place. So now everything is going to have to readjust to a new normal level of spending.
Here’s a another reason why savings in my mind are good. Credit markets will flow again. Banks with new deposits can lend more money. You think the federal government is doing much buying $125 billion in mortgages? You should see what we collective can do with TFSA’s. If just 10 million of us on average max out those accounts (at $5000 each) you will see $50 billion in savings injected into the banks and other investments. Times five years and we could collectively have $250 billion put away plus interest. That could help in the long run don’t you think?
So overall I’m not buying the logic that I’m suppose to spend. I’ve yet to excessively spend so far, so why would I change now? So what are your thoughts on the saving vs spend debate?
