The Dividend Pirate

Like the rest of the country, we are also being hit hard by the high gas prices. Gas has crossed 4 dollars a gallon(ouch!!! I remember filling a tank at 1.81 dollars a gallon three years back). We have 2 cars and my wife and I drive 40 miles each daily. On an average our gas expenses were coming to 250 dollars per month(plus other related expenses due to driving like maintenance, etc…). So due to the spiraling costs, we decided to start taking the bus to work.

In Seattle, we have the concept of a “Park and Ride“. You drive your car to the Park and Ride, park your car and take the bus from there(pretty cool concept right). The Park and Ride is at a 4 minute driving distance from my place. In general Seattle’s public transportation is so much better than Los Angeles. In Los Angeles the big automotive companies never allowed the public transportation to gain good ground. Seattle’s is way better. In Seattle downtown, during the day public transportation is completely free. Riding the public transportation for me is free anyways because my company provides me with a free bus pass. Having ridden the bus for a week, I prefer riding the bus than taking a car because

- it helps me save money. If I save 250 dollars a month and invest it at 10% a year then in 30 years I should have 565,121.98 $$ saved. Now that’s quite a lot of money. You see the power of compounding. Try my savings and other calculators at http://dividendpirate.com/financial-calculators/

- gives me time to read a book.

- helps me avoid tickets(on an average I have got 1 ticket a year). I have got all kinds of tickets from parking to jumping red lights. I am a bad driver but am honestly taking efforts these days to driving defensively. I used to drive in Los Angeles before and I guess thats how I got an aggressive driving streak. The Seattle 60 miles per hour speeds are having a calming effect on me.

- prevents me from having accidents. Yes, I had one of those too.

- Environment friendly. After seeing the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” I believe each one of us has to do something for the planet. If you haven’t seen the movie I highly recommend you to do so. You can buy the dvd from Amazon by clicking the image below,

- Helps me network with people. I meet a lot of colleagues from my company working in different organizations. Traveling gives me an opportunity to network with them.

My wife has also started taking a shuttle which her company provides. We both have decided that the money we save in gas, we will spend in something else(clothes, vacation, save, etc…)

Seems like I am not alone in saving money on gas. According to a recent article published on CNN, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate. The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded. Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less — that’s 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it “the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.” Records have been kept since 1942.

Another good thing is that more and more Americans are using public transportation. American Public Transportation reports that Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years, the group said.

Popularity: 9% [?]

You might also be interested in reading the following articles,

• Washington Mutual bites the dust
• Amazon rocks!!!
• Top 10 tips to save money on Gas

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.