Success Warrior: Alan B. Rowley II - Beachbody.com, P90X, Voluntaryism, Voluntarism

Gas Prices Costing Us Indirectly

Between my little Saturn and my 3 mile commute, the gas prices aren't having much of a direct effect on me.  I drive to work.  I drive home.  Once a week, we go get groceries. 

That's where we are feeling it.  Not feeling it as in, how are we going to eat?  More of just an annoyance at this point although I'm not looking forward to seeing how high prices are going to go.

I recently read an article that stated that while healthy foods are rising in price, junk food is going down in price.  That's going to lead to more health problems for a lot of people, especially those that are already living paycheck to paycheck.

Exactly the same ones that can't afford health problems.

We are entering a new era which is frightening but at the same time exciting.  What is life going to be like when the violence subsides and the new system is in place?

McCain want to suspend gas taxes for the summer

From Memorial Day until Labor Day, McCain would like to save motorists 18 cents in Federal taxes. 

Here's a guy who openly plans on trying to continue the United States World Empire which currently costs us about a trillion dollars a year and he wants to cut taxes to save us a few cents a gallon at the pump.

As is the norm these days, the government will make up the difference by borrowing the money from China or the Federal Reserve, which ultimately is going to cost us our Republic.

People are going to wake up to the point that these little games that politicians play to make it *seem* like they are helping, are just for looks and actually make the situation worse. 

At least, I hope people wake up.  So help me Fed, people, take the red pill.

Oil vs. Gas

It is possible that oil prices will drop well below $100 a barrel.  It's not good news though.  For that to happen, the entire stock market would have to crash.

My guess is that gas prices won't go down proportional with oil prices. 

Oil companies take in record profits and I think they're going to continue to take in as much as possible.

Part of this is the declining value of the dollar.  Of course, revenues are going to go up when the dollar goes down.  It takes more of these less valuable dollars to buy the same amount of gas. 

In addition, the oil companies know that oil is on the decline.  Time to milk it for what it's worth before people make the change to some other energy source.

Oil Almost $106 a Barrel

The dollar hit a new low this week.  Why should this week be any different than the last few dozen.  OPEC won't increase output.  Chavez is threatening to go to war with Colombia and the US will undoubtedly be pulled in on Colombia's side.  Old Media is still pushing the Iranian nukeler threat.  Iran finally got their oil bourse up and running.  The stock market is crashing but oil is going up so investors will continue to drive up the cost of oil, gold, and silver.

Tia and I were talking a couple of days ago about what life would be like when gas is $4.00 a gallon.  Grocery prices are going to go up obviously and that won't be fun.

As far as driving goes though, we probably won't feel too much.  I figured it up the other day and if I didn't do much driving outside of commuting (a lifestyle I already live), I could probably drive to work and back for two months on a tank of gas.  At $4.00 a gallon, it will take me about $40.00 to fill the tank.  I haven't figured up how long Tia could drive on a tank of gas but it would probably be more than me even though my car gets better gas mileage because her workplace is much closer.

We already shop by internet when we can.  Shipping prices will be going up but it will still be cheaper than putting gas in a car.

We are going to be driving to San Diego the second week of June.  Yay!  The most expensive gas month of the year.  Don't get me started.  I didn't choose the time, place, or activity.  It's a long story.  Don't get me started.

Noticing the Difference Already

I was reading comments sent in to CNN.com about the rising gas prices.  I've been reading about the prices going up and I saw yesterday that they have gone way up here.  I haven't really felt it yet because my commute is 3 miles and the hummingbird (my car's nickname) gets 35 mpg.

Other's are feeling it and we aren't anywhere near Memorial Day yet.  These people are going to be in some serious trouble this summer.  This was my favorite comment:

Bob Johnson of Houston, Texas
We unloaded two of our three SUVs for a high mileage sedan. We are driving less overall and going out less. Any extra cash is being stashed or paying down CC debt.

That gets me right here, I have to tell you.  To have to give up 2 of your SUVs and downgrade to a car.  I'm not sure how they deal with the pain and humiliation.  Worse than that, they can't afford the gas to get to a therapist to help them deal with this unreasonable hardship.  I'm not sure how Bob is going to get by.  Maybe if we all pray for him.

It's not all Bob's fault but I'll get into that a week from Monday.

Although, I've never owned an SUV.  Reading Bob's dilemma, I have mixed feelings.  On one hand, I've never known the joy of owning 3 SUVs.  On the other hand, I haven't had to go through the pain of losing two of them.  With SUVs, is it better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all?

Random Thoughts from the Headlines

W gave a big fat veto to healthcare for 4 million kids, supposedly because there might be some abuse of the system.  If that's the case, we need to shut down every government program in place.  It's not the case though.  There's just too much money at stake in healthcare.  This is changing though because every year, there are fewer and fewer people with health insurance.  When insurance companies can't make money, they will start lobbying for a change.  Probably something we don't like but it will be a change.  How about making health insurance mandatory like car insurance? 

Pennsylvania is adding a couple new slot parlors and Massachusetts is adding three new casinos.  The government makes a lot of money off of casinos so these things are going up all over the country.  I read that the government gets about half the take so people protesting in PA are pretty much out of luck.  We are headed for some pretty rough times financially as a country and lotteries and casinos are just going to make things worse.  Desperate people are going to risk money they can't afford hoping to be the big winner and solve all their financial problems.  There is likely going to be a lot of get rich quick infomercials in the next couple of years and the people making the commercials are going to get rich quick.

A Simple Little Trip In A Car

Last week we had to do some driving in the Salt Lake City area.  We made plans to meet my daughters for dinner at a place that was only a few miles away.  Maybe 10 or 15 miles.  I drove over to a main road and started south and ran into rush hour traffic (does it really only last for an hour anymore?). 

We live in such a small town that we never have to deal with traffic.  A lot of people out here don't own cars or have driver's licenses.  The grocery store is about a mile away and my commute to work is 3 miles. 

The traffic turned out to be not so bad.  I've just gotten used to no traffic so when I saw the wall of cars ahead of us, I figured we'd be moving in slow motion.  We were soon where we wanted to be or at least close enough to ask for directions.  That's a whole 'nuther story. 

Anyway, while I realize that the rising gas prices are going to cause the price of everything to go up, I couldn't help but think how nice it will be when there are fewer cars on the road.  Only people who truly need to go somewhere will be there. 

Yikes! Are We Ready for the Truth About Oil?

I was glancing through some articles on oil today and I came across one that was incredibly surprising.  Here's an excerpt:

"Domestic demand growth of as much as five per cent per year in key oil producing countries is already beginning to cannibalize exports and will increasingly do so in the future as production plateaus or declines in many of these countries."

No talk about hurricanes, driving seasons, or the fact that there is this weird new phenomenon called winter that makes things cold in the northern hemisphere which causes people to want to heat their houses.

Production is on a plateau or decline in oil producing countries and they are holding more back for themselves (selfish bastards that they are).

This article is refreshing and frightening all at the same time. 

It's refreshing because it's nice to hear a little bit of truth from news outlets (this one is from CNN).

It's frightening because you know that they held this story back for as long as they could but the word is going to get out.  Oil is going to become more expensive and much more quickly than even I thought. 

Follow along now as I take you through the looking glass and into my wandering mind.

While We're Talking About Driving . . .

A lot of money is spent on cars.  In fact, car sales makes up a large part of the US economy.  The economy was up in August unless you take car sales out of the equation.  Then consumption was down.

People should be paying cash for cars but they aren't.  Not even me yet but I'm really hoping that I will be paying cash for my next car.  I'm going to keep the two I have until I have saved up enough money to buy another car.

Consumer reports says that if you drive your car for 15 years, you'd save over $30,000.  That's just what you would save and doesn't count how much money you would have if you continued to pay the amount of a car payment into your savings account.

Quite frankly, 15 years seems like a long time, even to someone like me who doesn't care about cars.  If you were to keep the car for 10 years and put the second 5 years worth of payments into savings, you'd earn interest for those 5 years and be able to pay cash.

Most people can pay off their cars in 2 years if they really want to so you could start saving 3 years earlier if you wanted or buy a car 3 years earlier.  Once you by a car on cash, you could buy a new car every 5 years if you continued to make payments into your savings account.  You might just find that you like having the money more than the car though and start keeping your cars longer.

Oil Prices Are High Because . . .

Not because we're running out, heavens no.

Dozens of other reasons.  Take your pick.  What I find interesting about the articles on oil lately is that the tune has changed and we just go on like it's always been this way.

Before this year, everyone expected the gas prices to go up for Memorial Day and then go back down around Labor Day.  We were told that peak driving months drove the prices up.  We knew it, we expected it, and even though we didn't like it, we accepted it.

What's different this year?

Driving season is over but gas prices are on the verge of rising dramatically (give it about 4 weeks - just a guess).  Why?  It's hurricane season.  Oil prices are going up because a hurricane might hit something. 

Will the gas prices go down after hurricane season?  Ummm, no.  Sorry.  We are already being warned that when hurricane season ends, it will be winter.  That means that we might need electricity to heat our homes and that's going to cost money.

Every season now has a reason why oil prices are going to be high.  Like hurricanes and winter are brand new phenomenons that have never happened before.   Suddenly, out of the blue, it gets cold in January in the northern hemisphere.  I don't know what all you people in Minnesota were complaining about before now.  Whiners.

Maybe next April and half of May, we'll catch a break.

Probably not.  By then, China, India, and Brazil, will be blamed for using up all of OUR oil.  One thing that is going to become apparent is that even if "they" can hide the fact that we are running out of oil, they won't be able to hide the fact that we just can't produce enough, fast enough, to get some out to everyone. 

Pick a reason, any reason.  There will be more of them coming in the future.

"Oil prices are up and it's April.  What gives?"

"A butterfly flapped it's wings in Madagascar."

"Oh."