5 tips for a successful carpool

Posted by Tad Johnson - Apr 13th, 2008 at 20:04

With gas prices on the rise, driving alone in your car is an expensive proposition. We’re paying $3.50/gallon here in Milwaukee which works out to $0.15/mile for the average car. (Double that if you’re driving a truck/SUV). With such a cost pressure, the carpool is certainly an attractive alternative to the solo commute.

I’m lucky to have the idea setup for a successful carpool : my roommate and I both work in the same building. We’ve been carpooling for a few months now and it has made a noticeable impact on my budget. Even as gas prices have gone up, my spending on gasoline has decreased.

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Like most things, the carpool is not all roses. My roommate and I both give up some freedom of scheduling exactly when we leave for work & home, and I’m not able to run errands or drive to lunch on the days he drives. These drawbacks are well worth the extra $20 that I keep in my pocket every week.

Here are some tips for a successful carpool :

  1. Keep a routine. Try to leave at the same time every day so it becomes part of the natural routine for all carpool members.
  2. Don’t keep the driver waiting. If anyone is waiting for a pickup, it should be the passenger(s), not the driver. A happy carpool is a punctual carpool.
  3. Spread the driving evenly. This one is pretty obvious, but it deserves mention. Keep things simple with a daily rotation of driving duty.
  4. Celebrate your savings! To keep the good feelings flowing, celebrate with your carpool mates every now and again by going out for lunch, drinks, or some other event. Since you’re saving money each week, you can think of this as a “free” celebration!
  5. Spread the good word. Encourage your co-workers and friends to try the carpool. It’s really not as scary as it sounds and it’s a great way to save gas, save money, and save the environment (at least a little).

The benefits of high gas prices

Posted by Tad Johnson - Apr 10th, 2008 at 17:04

As anyone who drives regularly is fully aware, gas prices are high. Quite high. Like $3.50 high. This may seem like a real drag when you’re paying $40 or $50 a tank, especially since prices move seemingly arbitrarily.

But as with most things, there is a silver lining!

cityplacedart2.jpgAfter dismantling our national mass transit system in the early 1900s and replacing it with sprawling suburbs and highways, this just may be the time to rebuild. (The reader may note that some of the largest cities in the U.S. have functional mass transit. I will remind the reader that every city of any size once had mass transit systems.)

The one-two punch of foreclosure fears and rising fuel prices will likely serve as strong encouragement for Americans to move back closer to the city centers at which point it becomes economical once again to build mass transit.

For this vicenarian, I can’t wait. What do you think?

High Grain Prices = Global Unrest

Posted by T.W. Hanson - Apr 7th, 2008 at 20:04

let them eat cake!You may have noticed headlines about spiking food commodity prices.  If you haven’t, it will soon become readily apparent in your grocery store.  To prepare for the coming price appreciation, I have given up my meat consumption.  But that is too much of an aside.  The higher grain prices are a function of many factors from bad weather in Australia to diminished grain reserves.  If you were a savvy or lucky vicenarian, you may have profited from the recent moves.  However, the world will not be so lucky.

Hunger, more broadly the scarcity of resources, has been the primary cause of most human conflicts.  Good luck convincing a soldier in Zimbabwe that he should jeopardize his government allowance in the name of the democratic process.

One of the other frightening developments in this recent grain price explosion is ethanol.  Other than it being one of the factors driving up prices and starving the world’s poor, it also is destroying the environment. 

Although I have resigned my efforts in converting the adult population into vegetarians to failure, I hope you see through the next politician who proclaims ethanol to be America’s savior.  I believe “Let them eat cake” didn’t go over so well the last time it was considered a talking point.

Sobering questions about the US dollar

Posted by Tad Johnson - Apr 4th, 2008 at 18:04

Watch this excerpt from a Danish documentary that asks the question, “what if the dollar collapsed?”



Leverage in a Global Economy

Posted by T.W. Hanson - Apr 2nd, 2008 at 20:04

 earth

The New York Times devoted an entire section of today’s paper to living in a leveraged world.  The potential problems of this reality are small compared to global climate change, but they are much larger than the current U.S. housing crisis.

This is a must read for vicenarians interested in how money, markets and the global economy functions.

Leveraged Planet

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