One of the great things about the internet is that everything is right at your fingertips. Instead of going to a mall or a bunch of different stores and shopping around for hours, you can search the internet, and in a matter of minutes, find a half-dozen places offering what you are looking for and comparison shop to find the best deal.
When you manage your financial affairs in the virtual world, you are helping to reduce the greenhouse effect that is threatening the global environment. You can enjoy a savings of as much as $150-$200 per year on checks, stamps and even late fees when you pay your bills and do your banking online.
So how do I avoid spending the money that I want to save? I make the saving automatic.
By setting up portions of my paycheck to automatically go into my retirement and savings accounts, I almost don’t even realize that the money is missing.
Looks like ING Direct, which I lauded in my post about laddering your emergency fund, has now made it even easier to ladder you CDs by letting you open multiple CDs at multiple maturities all on one page.
I'm in the process of bringing over an IRA to the company where I do most of my investments. I thought having as many things in one place would be convenient for me and my eventual heirs.
Then I got to thinking — what if my investment company had some type of Enron-like collapse? Would my balances go down the drain with their stock? Or am I exempt, because my balances are not invested in the company, but instead in mutual funds they offer?
So now I'm thinking, maybe not only is diversification amongst holdings a good idea, but diversification of the companies you do business with may be a good idea as well.
In reality, my investment company is a very large industry leader, so I couldn't imagine that they would not be bailed out by another company or the government.
But what if I was consolidating my assets with a smaller company that carried no clout? Could I lose everything if they went under?
Does anyone have any insights or thoughts on this topic?
According to the Washington Post's "A Switch on the Tracks: Railroads Roar Ahead," rising fuel costs for 18-wheeled trucks has generated a rapid turnaround in rail traffic with freight rail tonnage and rail ton-miles surging ahead.
The article cites a 3 to 1 fuel advantage for rail over trucks, but the fuel advantage also means less environmental pollution in an eco-conscious society.
Using less fuel to transport a ton-mile of freight represents a physical savings of resources that potentially benefits many because fuel costs are reflected in grocery store prices and for just about everything else we buy at stores.
Savings that lower costs should always be good, but because even though a higher share of freight traffic could go on the rails, changing modes of transportation will affect jobs.
Trucks have been dominating freight traffic measured by value and tons. The latest commodity flow survey data published by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration compiles domestic freight shipments.
It shows that trucks haul 70 percent of freight measured by value and 60 percent of freight measured by tons.
Rail, on the other hand, has only 3 percent of freight measured by value and a little over 10 percent measure by tons. Truck traffic measured in value of shipments is bigger than rail by a ratio more than 20 to one. In tons of freight, trucks are bigger than rail by a ratio of 6 to 1.
Freight measured by ton-miles, or tons multiplied by miles, shows the relative advantage of rail as a bulk carrier. Trucks haul 34 percent of freight measure by ton-miles compared to 31 percent by rail. In ton-miles, trucks are about even with rail by a ratio barely above 1 to 1.
However, the ratio of tractor trailer and heavy truck driving jobs to locomotive engineering jobs tells a different story. Heavy and tractor trailer drivers have 1,860,000 jobs compared to 46,600 jobs as locomotive engineers and operators.
Heavy truck driving jobs outnumber rail engineer jobs almost 40 to 1. Those totals count only heavy and tractor trailer jobs. There are a million additional light and delivery service trucking jobs.
Efficiency sounds so much like something we should like, but saving energy and reducing air pollution by shifting to rail and away from trucks will eliminate thousands more jobs than it will create.
If America wants efficiency, we may need to think of some new ways to share their work.
Fred Siegmund covers America's jobs as part of work doing labor market analysis and projections for a client base of recruiters, trainers and counselors. Visit him at www.americanjobmarket.blogspot.com
FNBO Direct wants to hear about your savings obstacles. Have you been struggling to save for college tuition or a wedding, pay off medical bills, go on the vacation of a lifetime or just get out of debt? Whatever the reason, we want to hear about it. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us say, "Wow! This person really needs to learn how to Pay Yourself First!"
To enter the contest, you have to shoot a 10- to 60-second video on your savings challenges and upload it to FNBO's YouTube channel.
The winner, as judged by FNBO, receives a "Restore Your Balance" vacation — a trip to a resort and spa (or cash in place of the voucher).
* Saved the most money during the challenge – based on percentage increase, rather than dollar amount saved (50%)
* Ranking by financial experts based on challenger's saving skill level: tactics for saving, ability to meet saving goal, and sharing saving challenges and solutions with PYF community (20%)
* Vote by American public via poll on www.PYFChallenge.com that judges the challengers' saving skill level: tactics for saving, ability to meet saving goal, and sharing saving challenges and solutions with PYF community (20%)
* Adherence to contest requirements, including active participation in the challenge activities such as blogging on www.PYFChallenge.com, and other promotional activities (10%)
Check out FNBO's promotional video for the contest.
Except the article was from May 15, 2004, or almost exactly four years ago.
The 23-year high price was cited at $1.95 a gallon. The article had a breathy tone and warned Americans that summer driving was sure to see $2.00/gallon gas.
Since I just paid $3.51 a gallon for my last gallons, the former 23-year high sounds like the kind of bargain I will never see again.
The price increase of $1.56 in 4 years works out to an average increase of $.39 a gallon per year.
Let's take a look at what that means, using the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' reports on annual average miles traveled per passenger car and average miles traveled per gallon of fuel consumed.
Convert to months and divide the miles by miles per gallon and the result equals 46 gallons: the average gallons for the average car for the average month. Use the $.39 a gallon increase on 46 gallons and the average monthly fuel bill went up $17.94.
The depressing part though is that the increase is cumulative; in the second year, it's $35.88 a month and so on. If these extra payments for gas went into the bank each month starting in May 2004 and earned 4% interest, the amount after 4 years comes to $2,283.88. Ouch!
You can think of it as a loss, or if you are a real saver, you will think of it as a challenge. Probably you have thought of driving a more fuel efficient car, or living closer to work, or just driving less. You could also buy a cheaper car.
Suppose you were buying a car in 2004 and you bought a car a year older, or two years older, than you originally planned and saved $1,946.71 on the deal. Let those savings earn 4% interest compounded over the 4 years and you would have the exact money you lost buying that expensive gas: $2,283.88.
There you have it. Save your gas money, buy a cheaper car.
If you want to know how easy that is go to a website like Carmax.com and look at model prices for 2005 and then back up to 2004, 2003 and 2002.
Fred Siegmund covers America's jobs as part of work doing labor market analysis and projections for a client base of recruiters, trainers and counselors. Visit him at www.americanjobmarket.blogspot.com
