This interactive map puts into perspective how excessive our energy consumption is in the United States. Hover your cursor over the nation of your choice to see its CO2 emissions, population, birth and death rates. David Bleja collected this data from United States Government statistics, from the CIA World Factbook and the United Nations Statistical Division.
Financially speaking the typical definition of retirement or financial independence is having enough income being produced by your investments to support your cost of living. Whether your investments consist of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, etc… You could be considered financially independent if the income from your assets covers your cost of living.
It is a fair assumption to believe energy costs make up a sizable portion of your cost of living. The average American family spends a sizable portion of their household income on energy consumption and the cost will only go up from here. It is extremely important to realize you have options when it comes to your energy costs and consumption.
Preparing for your financial future is about goal setting, taking control of your spending, saving more money and investing. When you choose to not do anything about changing your fossil fuel based energy sources you are committing to a path of uncertainty, constantly rising prices and guaranteed negative environmental side effects.
Predicting the cost of your energy in 10, 15 or 20+ years is like trying to predict the future value of a stock over the same time span. As many experienced investors know even the best projections are wrong a large percentage of the time. There is a word for this type of investing behavior. It’s called speculating.
Speculating on such a large portion of your future living costs is not necessary. Renewable energy sources like solar water heaters, solar PV, wind and geothermal help to hedge against this highly uncertain area of your financial future. Simply put, you are fixing the price of your energy for the lifespan of the nuts and bolts of your investment. With the typical lifespan of technologies like solar water heaters being 25 years or more you are stabilizing your energy expenses today and well into the future.
Think about it like this. Most likely you are going to have recurring energy expenses for the rest of your life. This is money that is constantly being given to your utility company month after month, year after year and for some of us decade after decade. The truly sad part about this is that all of this money you are spending, while it is providing you with energy to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, does not do anything to improve your financial or environmental picture. Not only is it not helping to improve your life, it is actually causing disastrous side effects in your personal finances and the lives of those around you.
Financially speaking you are currently on track to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your life in energy expenses. This is money that you could be using to help achieve long term financial goals you already have in place. Things like your kid’s college funds, retirement or putting the money to better use in other investments to help build wealth.
From an environmental standpoint the energy we currently use requires the consumption of fossil fuels. This consumption is directly responsible for things like global warming, pollution and serious health problems. By releasing large amounts of co2 emissions into our atmosphere we are destroying our planet.
The purpose of stating these known facts is not to upset or depress you with doom and gloom scenarios. It is designed to help you build more awareness about your current path. Chances are you probably already knew most of this and genuinely care about personal spending habits and how they relate to your energy consumption. Unfortunately some people do not care about the wake they are leaving behind them, even when proven side effects of their behaviors are unpleasant.
Change is hard, but the good news is that it is entirely possible for you, you family and friends to reverse your current course and create very dynamic positive results in your personal finances and simultaneously benefit the environment.
Imagine. You could be generating your own energy, creating personal financial gains and helping to save your environment. And the best part is all it takes is a better understanding of how you spend your money, how you consume energy and, of course, taking action.
Most of the products we buy like groceries, shoes, clothing, etc are purchased through some sort of store or retailer therefore we are paying a retail premium for these goods and services. If you live in Maryland you are probably purchasing most of your energy (gas and electric) from Baltimore Gas & Electric, Pepco, Washington Gas, Delmarva Power, etc…Like any other product or service, when we buy energy we are purchasing it through a large company or what can be thought of as an energy retailer.
Like many things in our lives, the more work we do ourselves the more money we save. For example: If your dishwasher breaks you have the option to pay a retail premium to make the repair or to handle the entire repair yourself. Depending on your do-it-yourself skill level completing a repair like this may or may not be an option, but in the end a dishwasher is a dishwasher and the output from this repair is basically the same whether you pay retail for the repair or make the repair yourself.
Solar energy home improvements are in a league of their own. The successful do-it-yourself completion of a solar PV or solar water heater installation requires a high level of skill and can be a daunting task for even the most experienced do-it-yourselfer. Saving money by completing the project yourself is not always the best choice. Solar energy improvements are in a league of their own because whether you complete the project yourself, or pay a premium for a professional installation, the output from such an improvement has been fundamentally changed unlike a dishwasher replacement.
The value is much deeper than simply going green or saving money on your electric bill every month. You are no longer purchasing energy at a retail premium. You are taking control of your spending, energy consumption and giving yourself a new level of independence in a marketplace where all to often we are forced to pay retail prices for everything.
There is no doubt that generating your own energy is a commitment. After all, what significant worthwhile changes in your life have been anything but a commitment? Real change means taking an active role in the education, investment and implementation of things like solar energy, wind and geothermal.
What are your thoughts on energy independence?
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