Just wanted to write a quick post to share something that has become a essential part of my financial knowledge. While not necessarily making me money, is helping me keep it. The website is www.mint.com and it is free. It is a company essentially focused on collecting your financial data, displaying it to you in one place, and doing it in a really clear manner. It takes all of your accounts lumps all of your cash together (also debts), produces some really good charts, and gives you the result. It will let you input anything you own. The longer you use the site the more useful it gets. It takes all of your transactions and comes up with trending information that is really useful.
I am working at a bar right now for some extra cash, and my pay varies greatly. I write down everything I make, but looking at the net income graphs on the trends page I can really see how big of a difference summer made on the money I made. It has also shown me that I spend way too much money on eating out and if I get over my budget it lets me know.
Getting started is really a simple process. All you have to do is enter in your online banking info and it does the rest. It is a little sketchy to give away access to all of your bank account information to a website, but it has been fine for me(so far). The way that it makes money is that it also attempts to get you to sign up for various services that they get a commission on. Sometimes the services are really good or can save you a bit of money. It ranges from savings accounts to mortgages.
At any rate the site has really helped me. It does make me feel a little weird out about all of my information being in their hands, but the service is worth it.
Followers
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Diesel vs Gas
Earlier this year I wrecked my old car, a 1993 Nissan Altima. It was a real beater, but I thought I was going to drive her for a while yet. Now being the super cheap guy that I am it took me a long time to buy something else. Purchasing a car is a big decision. It will be with you for at least 5 years. I had my Altima for 6 years, but it had been in the family since '93. Over the span of 6 years some small expenses really added up. Namely the purchase of gasoline. Back then I was not too concerned about the way that I drove my car and did not think about the effects of my driving on my MPG and my wallet. I usually got somewhere between 28-38 MPG.
Going in to purchase this next car I had really become conscious of how this added up over time. I did my research this time. The car's price and fuel efficiency were my priorities. I had two demands for this car. It had to be right around $10,000 so I could pay cash for it and it had to get at least 40 MPG on the highway. I do a lot of highway driving and was really hoping to bring my costs down.
After looking in to it for an inordinate amount of time(Which I wasted a lot of) I had narrowed it down to a list of a few cars. Chief among them was the Jetta TDI. For those of you who don't know what the TDI part stands for... it means that it is a diesel, and wow are they hard to find used. Everywhere I turned these thing were getting snapped up as soon as they got on the market or were not in my price range. It took me forever, but I finally found one close by and bought it. I know that I have been saving money on fuel since I bought the car, but I am curious to know how much I am saving and how that adds up over time. I also know that there are a myriad of other factors that should be calculated with car ownership, but right now I only want to look at fuel.
It is common knowledge that diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline burning engines. Here are a few articles if you are interested in further study:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency#Internal_combustion_engines
http://www.bankspower.com/techarticles/show/26-Understanding-Todays-Diesel
I want to calculate the math on just how much this increased efficiency translates to savings.
I made a quick excel spreadsheet to do all of the calculating. I might upload it, but it is really easy to make if you are interested. Let me know if you spot any errors. I did this post pretty quickly! I got today's average fuel price from:
http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com/?redirectto=http://fuelgaugereport.opisnet.com/index.asp
The average price for unleaded fuel I used for my calculations is: $3.859 for gas and $4.124 for diesel.
I am going to guess the range that my Altima got was somewhere between 28-38 mpg with my average probably around 32. For the annual cost I am assuming that I drove 12,000 miles. Here are the numbers:
Now I have been keeping records on the Jetta since I purchased it. My lowest tank average has been 43.49 and my highest tank average has been 49.46. I am working hard on increasing it and hope to break into the 50's soon. The average of all of my tanks is 46.81. This is much better than the numbers that VW actually puts on the car. They say to expect 32/42. However, with the correct driving techniques you can greatly increase it as I have. Here are the numbers:
So we can see that the difference between my Altima's yearly cost: $1447.125 and my Jetta's: $1075.826 is $371.299. That is quite a bit of money just to chose a different car. Now lets assume that I never wrecked my car and that fuel prices stay constant. In the next five years I would have spent an extra $1856.495 on my old car. Thats $7235.625 vs $5379.13. I hope to have this car for at least ten more years. Again assuming all stays constant thats $3712.99 in 10 years. Which makes my fuel cost at $14,471.25 vs $10,758.26. A lot of money either way, but hopefully I can bring my average tank up and increase my savings even more.
The Altima was really not that bad of a gas burner. If we compare me to a hummer we get:
Which works out to a difference of $3994.449 a year. Which makes $20,347.53 in 5 years and $51,442.572 in 10. What about an F-150? I live in the south and trucks make up a large percentage of vehicles on the road around here.
That is a difference of $2156.83 every year. A difference of $10,784.15 in 5 years and $21,868.30 in 10 years. I have tons of friends who drive pickups everyday without any real reason. I don't know if I could justify the added expenditure.
Also just as something to think about. What if you were a truck person, sold your truck, bought a fuel efficient car, and put the savings in an investment like the stock market or bonds? You now have to think about the fact that you are losing out on the potential earnings of that money compounded over your entire life. Adds up pretty quickly.
There are some increased costs for diesels. They generally have a premium attached to them, you have to find a shop that knows how to fix diesels, some maintenance costs more, etc. But they are generally considered to have a life span far greater than their gasoline burning brethren and their resale value is much higher. In a few years you should be able to get some gasoline burning cars that are pretty cheap and have the fuel economy close to a diesel. There are a few out there now like the Nissan Versa (2012 sedan only), Ford Fiesta, and some others. If we really are trying to get rich slowly this seems to be something we really should consider. Its all about the choices we make and their cost adding up over time.
Going in to purchase this next car I had really become conscious of how this added up over time. I did my research this time. The car's price and fuel efficiency were my priorities. I had two demands for this car. It had to be right around $10,000 so I could pay cash for it and it had to get at least 40 MPG on the highway. I do a lot of highway driving and was really hoping to bring my costs down.
After looking in to it for an inordinate amount of time(Which I wasted a lot of) I had narrowed it down to a list of a few cars. Chief among them was the Jetta TDI. For those of you who don't know what the TDI part stands for... it means that it is a diesel, and wow are they hard to find used. Everywhere I turned these thing were getting snapped up as soon as they got on the market or were not in my price range. It took me forever, but I finally found one close by and bought it. I know that I have been saving money on fuel since I bought the car, but I am curious to know how much I am saving and how that adds up over time. I also know that there are a myriad of other factors that should be calculated with car ownership, but right now I only want to look at fuel.
It is common knowledge that diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline burning engines. Here are a few articles if you are interested in further study:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency#Internal_combustion_engines
http://www.bankspower.com/techarticles/show/26-Understanding-Todays-Diesel
I want to calculate the math on just how much this increased efficiency translates to savings.
I made a quick excel spreadsheet to do all of the calculating. I might upload it, but it is really easy to make if you are interested. Let me know if you spot any errors. I did this post pretty quickly! I got today's average fuel price from:
http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com/?redirectto=http://fuelgaugereport.opisnet.com/index.asp
The average price for unleaded fuel I used for my calculations is: $3.859 for gas and $4.124 for diesel.
I am going to guess the range that my Altima got was somewhere between 28-38 mpg with my average probably around 32. For the annual cost I am assuming that I drove 12,000 miles. Here are the numbers:
Cost Per Mile of Gasoline | Cost Per 1000 Miles Of Gasoline | Annual Gasoline Expense | |
28.000 | ¢ 0.138 | $137.821 | $1653.857 |
29.000 | ¢ 0.133 | $133.069 | $1596.828 |
30.000 | ¢ 0.129 | $128.633 | $1543.600 |
31.000 | ¢ 0.124 | $124.484 | $1493.806 |
32.000 | ¢ 0.121 | $120.594 | $1447.125 |
33.000 | ¢ 0.117 | $116.939 | $1403.273 |
34.000 | ¢ 0.114 | $113.500 | $1362.000 |
35.000 | ¢ 0.110 | $110.257 | $1323.086 |
36.000 | ¢ 0.107 | $107.194 | $1286.333 |
37.000 | ¢ 0.104 | $104.297 | $1251.568 |
38.000 | ¢ 0.102 | $101.553 | $1218.632 |
Now I have been keeping records on the Jetta since I purchased it. My lowest tank average has been 43.49 and my highest tank average has been 49.46. I am working hard on increasing it and hope to break into the 50's soon. The average of all of my tanks is 46.81. This is much better than the numbers that VW actually puts on the car. They say to expect 32/42. However, with the correct driving techniques you can greatly increase it as I have. Here are the numbers:
43.000 | ¢ 0.096 | $95.907 | $1150.884 |
44.000 | ¢ 0.094 | $93.727 | $1124.727 |
45.000 | ¢ 0.092 | $91.644 | $1099.733 |
46.000 | ¢ 0.090 | $89.652 | $1075.826 |
47.000 | ¢ 0.088 | $87.745 | $1052.936 |
48.000 | ¢ 0.086 | $85.917 | $1031.000 |
49.000 | ¢ 0.084 | $84.163 | $1009.959 |
50.000 | ¢ 0.082 | $82.480 | $989.760 |
51.000 | ¢ 0.081 | $80.863 | $970.353 |
52.000 | ¢ 0.079 | $79.308 | $951.692 |
53.000 | ¢ 0.078 | $77.811 | $933.736 |
So we can see that the difference between my Altima's yearly cost: $1447.125 and my Jetta's: $1075.826 is $371.299. That is quite a bit of money just to chose a different car. Now lets assume that I never wrecked my car and that fuel prices stay constant. In the next five years I would have spent an extra $1856.495 on my old car. Thats $7235.625 vs $5379.13. I hope to have this car for at least ten more years. Again assuming all stays constant thats $3712.99 in 10 years. Which makes my fuel cost at $14,471.25 vs $10,758.26. A lot of money either way, but hopefully I can bring my average tank up and increase my savings even more.
The Altima was really not that bad of a gas burner. If we compare me to a hummer we get:
9.000 | ¢ 0.429 | $428.778 | $5145.333 |
43.000 | ¢ 0.096 | $95.907 | $1150.884 |
Which works out to a difference of $3994.449 a year. Which makes $20,347.53 in 5 years and $51,442.572 in 10. What about an F-150? I live in the south and trucks make up a large percentage of vehicles on the road around here.
Cost Per Mile | Cost Per 1000 Miles | Annual Expense | |
14.000 | ¢ 0.276 | $275.643 | $3307.714 |
43.000 | ¢ 0.096 | $95.907 | $1150.884 |
That is a difference of $2156.83 every year. A difference of $10,784.15 in 5 years and $21,868.30 in 10 years. I have tons of friends who drive pickups everyday without any real reason. I don't know if I could justify the added expenditure.
Also just as something to think about. What if you were a truck person, sold your truck, bought a fuel efficient car, and put the savings in an investment like the stock market or bonds? You now have to think about the fact that you are losing out on the potential earnings of that money compounded over your entire life. Adds up pretty quickly.
There are some increased costs for diesels. They generally have a premium attached to them, you have to find a shop that knows how to fix diesels, some maintenance costs more, etc. But they are generally considered to have a life span far greater than their gasoline burning brethren and their resale value is much higher. In a few years you should be able to get some gasoline burning cars that are pretty cheap and have the fuel economy close to a diesel. There are a few out there now like the Nissan Versa (2012 sedan only), Ford Fiesta, and some others. If we really are trying to get rich slowly this seems to be something we really should consider. Its all about the choices we make and their cost adding up over time.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Motivation
It is hard to find motivation. I have continuously been doing my side projects since I last wrote an article, but I somehow haven't managed to document them well. I have a ton of ideas for articles, but I just haven't had the motivation to post them here. A lot of these are really cool and need to be documented. I will try and get the motivation to get them up sometime soon.
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