Your Cash, Turned Into A Worthless Gas

I just got home from an overnight trip to Albion, Washington where I went to visit friends of mine and attend their daughter's first birthday party.

I used hypermiling techniques on my drive home again (I don't know right now how much fuel I ended up using for the round-trip yet, however). Many of my fellow drivers, especially folks driving vehicles bearing Idaho plates, obviously were not doing the same.

The fact that they were frequently far in excess of posted speed limits aside, I just have to wonder - do these people not understand that they're just burning their money? The poor driving habits I observe on a regular basis, most of which degrade the fuel economy of the vehicles these folks are in, don't really get them where they're going all that much faster and at a greater cost (not to mention that they are frequently just begging for a law enforcement officer to write them a speeding ticket).

You know who you are, and I just have to ask: is needlessly turning your hard earned money into carbon monoxide worth it?

It's Going To Be A Brewtiful Day!

There can't be good living where there there is not good drinking. -- Benjamin Franklin

Today I'm heading for the Northwest Best Brewfest with some of my coworkers. I like beer and beer likes me, so this should be a good day. There will be 40 selections available, served up in 4 ounce samples and full pints. I'm probably going to stick to samples though since their size makes it more likely that I'll survive long enough to try them all. The event lasts eight hours and I'm bringing cash equivalent to 172 ounces (by the event pricing). If I do the sensible thing and pace it at one pint per hour, this should go well (and leave me with cash for a big, greasy cheeseburger).

One brewery I'm happy to see on the list is a very micro microbrewer, the Laht Neppur Brewing Co., whose products I'm already familiar with. They are based in Waitsburg, Washington, a short twenty minute drive from where I live. I've sampled their creations at their brewery (and eaten some of their excellent pizza while I was at it).

Wish me and my liver luck!

Hypermiling my way home

A while back I read about a concept now known as "hypermiling," which in short is deliberate alteration of one's vehicle and driving habits with the aim of maximizing fuel economy.

This past weekend I was on the road for a bit, and on my return trip I decided to put as many hypermiling techniques into practice as I could (the ones that don't require alterations to the vehicle itself, that is). I drive a 2001 Hyundai Accent, 5 speed manual, with no AC system.

Result: I achieved roughly 51 miles per gallon!

Interested? You should be. Hypermiling works with any vehicle out there. Click here for some further reading on the subject.

An Easy Forex Trade: Straddling News Events

Lately I've been using a simple method for trading Forex that has been fairly profitable while also putting me back to 100% cash when everything is said and done. Basically, I've been waiting on news events and placing bets on both sides of them.

What I do first is check out the Forex Factory Calendar for upcoming news (you should set it to your time zone). Mostly I've been paying attention to news about the USD and the Euro, in particular the events noted with a red "impact" icon.

Depending on the currency I'm following, I'll pull up a USD/JPY or EUR/USD five minute chart about fifteen to twenty minutes ahead of time and look for a price range the pair has settled into. Usually before a major news release the pairs will range very tightly as traders stop trying to move the pairs significantly due to the uncertainty that results from a pending report.

When there is five minutes or less to go, I place limit orders above and below the price range, usually with ten pip trailing stops programmed in (my broker allows me to do this; I don't know if they all do). (I struck out that last bit because of a nasty surprise my broker just handed me: a trailing stop programmed to be placed when my trade executed was taken out instantly when the trade did execute. The reason is that my broker widened the price spread on the pair enormously right as the news I was following hit. I'm just going to stick with take profit orders instead. It just turned what should have been a 20 pip gain in a matter of seconds into an instant loss.) I place these fairly close to the action, but not too close since price can whip back and forth violently immediately after news hits the wires.

Normally a significant news event will push the price decisively in one direction or the other. If action heads up, my buy limit order is triggered and my trailing stop begins chasing the gains. If price plummets, my sell limit order is activated. All I do after that is cancel the order that wasn't triggered and let the one that was run its course.

This method doesn't always work as intended, and sometimes the gains are not very substantial. When things go wrong, because I have trailing stops automatically put in place the most that can be lost is twenty pips (normally it's just ten, but if price whips back and forth and both your buy and sell limit orders are triggered, you can lose up to twenty). (See above.) Often enough though the gains are substantial and are made very quickly. Depending on your needs, this can be a very effective way to trade.

Capitol Gluttony

I saw this article linked to on Facebook by The Pajamahadin:

The amount that Congress spends to avoid legislating on empty stomachs is more than enough to make taxpayers sick to theirs.

In just nine months spanning late 2009 and early 2010, the House spent $2.6 million on food and beverages for members and staff, according to the Sunlight Foundation's House Expenditure Reports Database. That figure includes $604,000 just for bottled water, showing that Congress is not just hungry but thirsty, too.

It sounds to me like we need to put Congress on a beans and rice diet.

Is Early Retirement Right For Everyone? A Reader Comments

A new reader, who goes by the name "Avondell," left this great comment a few minutes ago in response to my post, Eating On 90 Cents A Day:

Americans, males in particular, are programmed to work from a very young age. The question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a classic example. That question bothered me a lot when I was a kid and led me and my father into long conversations that ultimately guided my path. In some, that programming is very strong. Some people simply are not happy unless they are working at something.

If you're one of those people, then don't retire unless you have a SERIOUS plan.

Doing nothing is bad for people. It leads to physical, mental, and emotional problems. The fact is, life is hard...whether you are rich or poor, retired or working 16 hours a day. Life is difficult and it requires work. Happiness requires work. If you think you're going to retire when you're 40 and be happy sitting around watching The View every day...then don't retire.

If you are the sort of person who cannot envision going through life doing the same thing...if you are interested in a lot of different things...then maybe retirement is for you. Or at least semi-retirement.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much time goofing off. The real value in having the ability to retire isn't so you can do nothing, it's so you can pursue something. If you can have enough money that you can choose what you want to do for work...and you have the freedom to quit and change careers at any time...that's probably the best kind of early retirement.

In any case, life is about sacrifices. People approach that two different ways. Some people make sacrifices so they can have things later on. Others sacrifice their future in order to have things now. Sacrifice isn't ever enjoyable, but it is unavoidable.

Speaking of work, I'm in the middle of my working day today as I post this (I came home for some breakfast and now I must head back out into the field), but I just had to spend a few minutes getting this up on the main page here for all to see. I don't have time to comment at the moment except to say that I agree with what Avondell has to say on this topic.

Avondell - many thanks for sharing!

Don't Go For The Gold

I spotted this article while looking over the Yahoo! Finance home page this morning: Three Reasons Silver Is Likely to Shine.

I buy silver rather than gold, in part because of three valuation factors mentioned in the article: silver is a more useful metal in industrial applications (it is consumed and must be replaced); silver at present is still priced lower than historical highs; total silver supplies (refined and unextracted deposits) are diminishing (increasing scarcity).

Not mentioned in the article is a fourth reason I prefer silver over gold: liquidity. If conditions go south, then as an item of trade one ounce of silver (presently about $18.02/ounce) would be easier to exchange for an equivalent amount of goods than even one tenth of an ounce of gold (presently about $118.10 for 1/10th of an ounce, which would not be an issue if the counterparty has enough desirable goods to offer that would be worth that much).