gas prices

[PHINFAN]

One of the biggest reasons for the rising gas prices (and other things) that i did not see mentioned is the value of our currency. Oil is currently traded in US dollars, so when the value of that currency falls, which it has been doing a lot of lately, with NO rise in the value of oil, we still see an increase.

The FED is trying to bring on inflation, it is a method many have used previously to a) stimulate spending, b) get a grip on the deficit.

A lesson we learned from Japan, nobody spends any money when prices are thought to be going down. If you feel they will be increasing, you buy.

I am not saying this method is right or wrong, i am just saying this is what they are going with, no mattter what they say...

 

[Jordan_J]

First off the President cannot directly affect the cost of fuel. Congress could impose regulation of fuel but that not going to happen. Bush did affect the cost of fuel by destroying the oil production in Iraq during the Iraq war. The less production did drive up the costs but we are not in that situation now. No issues with production. OPEC opens and closes the oil tap to the world as they desire. They want more money, they close down the tap some and next thing the price per barrel goes up. The other way is when speculators keep pushing the price b/c they expect the prices of fuel will go up. Gee, kind of self serving on that. Of course the price will go up since it was artificially driven up. It wasn't a fuction of supply/demand, simply greed. Dennis F is absolutely correct. As the cost of fuel goes up so do all the items that are transported, the cost of electricity generated by diesel and bottom line cost of doing business. So speculators are actually hurting the recovery by driving up the cost of fuel right now. Greed again without thought to rest of us. There are some very simple ways we can get off the Middle East oil. Trains are way more efficient for transportation, wind, hydro and solar could put a big dent in the amount we buy from those bastards.

I did a research paper on oil and how we as a country could save on fuel for school earlier this year. Surprisingly we don't get very much oil from the middle east at all. We get something like 60% from ourselves then import a lot from Canada and Mexico as the top two behind ourselves. As a matter of fact this website shoes Nigeria and Saudi Arabia as the next two after them.

U.S. Total Crude Oil and Products Imports

 

[charlief1]

That's why irresponsible people need to save their money so when gas goes up $25 cents a gallon their not whining about it. It's called COST OF LIVING increases. Nothing new. Gas is not the only thing that will go up in time. So will food, taxes, insurance, college, etc....

For those who's lives are stressed over an extra quarter they have to spend for gas might want to think about their future and how careless they are with their money.

Saving for retirement is something you have CONTROL over. The price of gas is something you DO NOT.

I don't sweat the things I don't have control over. I just prepare for them and so should you. So being responsible with ur money so cost of living increases don't stress you is brow beating? Actually, it's common sense.

Let me give you a very good example Bret. One of my lady friends is divorced from a very abusive man. The county I live in is one of the poorest in the state. She works 2 jobs and has 2 teenage sons. The wages around here are low. Since this area has no manufacturing and it's small towns you either have to drive a minimum of 40 miles one way to get a better paying job or work more than one. If for some reason she gets sick she still has to work if at all possible to pay the bills. 8 dollars may not seem a lot to you but to some of us that means you may not be able to eat lunch one day out of the week. I know several people like this myself. She is in the process of getting a degree as well and hopes to make a better life for her and the boys but if something happens then she very possibly will be on the streets.

Yes, 8 dollars isn't that much today but sometimes to someone else it means whether to go hungry or not.

 

[Dennis F]

I feel for your situation, if things are tight enough you have to cut your meds in half, and cancel the internet maybe selling that GN in your sig would be a good place to start?

That is not a big deal as the car has barely been driven 800 miles in 5 years.

Brett, I don't know what your deal is, but you can only cut so much till there is nothing left. My comment about health care is that is just one more expense I need to cover this year, on top of oil prices and the effects it has on other products.

I am not struggling yet, but this year will be tighter. If you are recession proof, high oil price proof, put all your money away into savings... Tell us how you do it? How much do you tuck away every year?

 

[JOHNDEEREGN]

That is not a big deal as the car has barely been driven 800 miles in 5 years.

Brett, I don't know what your deal is, but you can only cut so much till there is nothing left. My comment about health care is that is just one more expense I need to cover this year, on top of oil prices and the effects it has on other products.

I am not struggling yet, but this year will be tighter. If you are recession proof, high oil price proof, put all your money away into savings... Tell us how you do it? How much do you tuck away every year?

I was just guessing that depending on condition you could have anywhere from 5K up to 25K liquid cash setting there, thats all.

Back under my rock.

 

[GNBRETT]

Let me give you a very good example Bret. One of my lady friends is divorced from a very abusive man. The county I live in is one of the poorest in the state. She works 2 jobs and has 2 teenage sons. The wages around here are low. Since this area has no manufacturing and it's small towns you either have to drive a minimum of 40 miles one way to get a better paying job or work more than one. If for some reason she gets sick she still has to work if at all possible to pay the bills. 8 dollars may not seem a lot to you but to some of us that means you may not be able to eat lunch one day out of the week. I know several people like this myself. She is in the process of getting a degree as well and hopes to make a better life for her and the boys but if something happens then she very possibly will be on the streets.

Yes, 8 dollars isn't that much today but sometimes to someone else it means whether to go hungry or not.

I don't doubt for a second that some people are more strapped then others.

Either way, the cost of living will never go down. In fact, it will continue to rise as more people populate the earth and no one can dictate what the price of oil will be. One thing everyone can count on is the fact that it will continue to rise.

Life will deal many a chit sandwhich on many occassions actually. Most just fail to prepare for those times in their life and as a result play catch up for many years if not an entire lifetime.

She is not alone in that fight. I know many cops who have made over $100k many years who have filed bankruptcy and don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

It's not how much you make, it's how much you save. Granted, with 2 kids and being divorced it's obviously going to be harder to get ahead but that is usually a result of ones failure to prepare for those rainy times in their life. Not always, but usually.

 

[Pronto]

I did a research paper on oil and how we as a country could save on fuel for school earlier this year. Surprisingly we don't get very much oil from the middle east at all. We get something like 60% from ourselves then import a lot from Canada and Mexico as the top two behind ourselves. As a matter of fact this website shoes Nigeria and Saudi Arabia as the next two after them.

U.S. Total Crude Oil and Products Imports

Not all OPEC nations are Middle Eastern but generally they not all considered our "friends" like Canada and Mexico which are much more stable. In another chart there the cost of OPEC oil is also generally more expensive than Canada and Mexico. Bottom line is regardless of the country of origan, speculation on prices drive the cost up. Right now that is not what we need. I don't have an answer to the speculation other than when there is a bubble (oil, mortgages, gold, dotcom, etc) that drives the cost out of sight, when it pops there is big failout. Gold will be the next to pop. Greed is greed.

 

[GNBRETT]

That is not a big deal as the car has barely been driven 800 miles in 5 years.

Brett, I don't know what your deal is, but you can only cut so much till there is nothing left. My comment about health care is that is just one more expense I need to cover this year, on top of oil prices and the effects it has on other products.

I am not struggling yet, but this year will be tighter. If you are recession proof, high oil price proof, put all your money away into savings... Tell us how you do it? How much do you tuck away every year?

Well, I wouldn't put much of anything into savings. A savings account may yield 1% return. Cost of living is about 3-4% so unless ur invested into some mutual funds or even a US treasary bond pulling say 4-5% ur money in savings is simply deterioting. Mutual funds are gonna average about 8% over a 30 year period.

A few years ago I sat down one night and calculated up everything I spent in one month to try to figure out how I could invest more money and still live comfortably. I found that food and entertainment were sucking up the largest percenatge of my monthy earnings. And those where two things that I had direct control over so I bought more food at the grocery store and budgeted a strict allowance of money that I could spend each week in entertainment.

If you think ur gonna do it natually ur fooling urself. You have to BUDGET and again seperate wants from needs and you need to put it on paper to really see where that money is going. Doing it in ur head isn't gonna cut it.

A Buick will suck the life right out of you. That is a fact.

You will never make any changes in ur lifestyle unless you sit down and figure out how much money you need to spend vs. how much money you ARE spending. If you spend and extra $6 a day on food and another $6 a day on entertainment that doesnt sound like much unless you look at what you have spend over the month which is $320.00.

If you invested $320.00 a month it would likely be $320.00 a month more then most of ur friends invest. In fact, it would be $320.00 a month more then MOST invest and that aint chit in reality.

TIME is the critical factor. Most say when I pay this off I will start investing. Well, when most pay this off they now want to buy that and so on and so on. CC's are often misinterpreted. They are EMERGENCY cards. If you aint got the cash and its not a house or car then you dont NEED it period.

Americans are impulsive buyers and want instant gradification. And they do it year after year after year and before they know it they are in their 50's and have worked for 30+ years and have vitually nothing to show for a lifetime of earnings.

I earn more then some so I invest more then some. I know many who earn WAY more then I and invest way less.

I max out my deferred comp. (457 plan) at $16,500 a year. It's not really $16,500 a year that comes out of my pay because it's tax deferred meaning I am not paying taxes on that investment so actually it's about $10k that comes out of my earnings each year of about $200 of the $320 a week that goes into the fund. Ah 1/3rd basically. That 1/3rd of investment I would have paid taxes on if not investing in my 457 plan. Hence the phrase deferred compensation, taxes are deferred until you withdraw.

Your not required to withdraw on it till ur 70 1/2 yrs. old. That's too long for me and most others. The government has allowed you to invest X amount of dollars for X amount of years and will penalize you if you dont take it out at that age simply because they want something in return for a lifetime of investing without paying taxes on those earnings.

But you also lower your taxable income by $16,500 or whatever you put in (401k works the same) and therefore pay fewer taxes because your earnings are now less on paper because you can write off that $16,500. So if ur making $50k then ur paying taxes on $33,500.

Dont be fooled by the word recession. I have been investing heavily since 1996 and have experienced several recessions. When you invest ur money into mutual funds you should LONG for recessions because when you invest in mutual funds ur buying stocks.

When those stock prices drop you are still investing as you did when it was a bull market but ur buying those stocks at half price now. When the market returns ur investments will grow rapidly because you have now bought that many more shares because you were able to purchase many more shares at a reduced price during the bear market.

It's not one or two things that get cut. It's many. And cutting just affords you the opportunity to invest so ur money can grow not spend more on cars.

Im not saying it's easy, in fact it's dam hard. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

 

[RIFF RAFF]

Speculators suck

the bigest problem with oil costs right now is speculators working between the falling dollar and long term oil demand when people stop wasting fuel oil drops that is what works best strength in numbers but now they have the strength so they demand we pay. when it was all said and done in 2008 the bigest oil company in america was trading firm on wall street .. they are betting right now that the american people cant help but drive and so for its working i am in the oil biz and not a trading firm so i have lost so much money in the last two years i dont think i will make it another . but what do you do give up. get pissed.nope the only thing that will work is to cut back stop driving but that wont happen and the speculators are counting on it i have seventeen colector cars and in two years only drove them to get them appraised so i could barrow more money to survive. next step is to start selling them in down market and loose in different direction 3 of my cars are turbo cars and my creditors will have to kill me to get thier hands on them that sucking sound you hear first thing in am is wall street

 

[Little6pack]

A few years ago I sat down one night and calculated up everything I spent in one month to try to figure out how I could invest more money and still live comfortably. I found that food and entertainment were sucking up the largest percenatge of my monthy earnings. And those where two things that I had direct control over so I bought more food at the grocery store and budgeted a strict allowance of money that I could spend each week in entertainment.

I guess those DONUT runs add up? Don't Officers get free coffee & donuts? :biggrin:

A Buick will suck the life right out of you. That is a fact.

OH YEAH I seen what some of my buick friends (not mentioning names here) have spent... I AM NOT GOING DOWN THAT ROAD! And one guy has still yet do drive his car. He is going on 3rd year with engine issues. Not sure how long he has owned it total..

 

[GNBRETT]

I guess those DONUT runs add up? Don't Officers get free coffee & donuts? :biggrin:




OH YEAH I seen what some of my buick friends (not mentioning names here) have spent... I AM NOT GOING DOWN THAT ROAD! And one guy has still yet do drive his car. He is going on 3rd year with engine issues. Not sure how long he has owned it total..

No coffee, no donuts, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs..... I guess im boring.

I love Buicks and will have another sooner or later but likely later unless Brian puts up his Chestnut T for sale runnen 9's. Then im in big trouble:biggrin:

 

[Little6pack]

No coffee, no donuts, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs..... I guess im boring.

:biggrin:

Me too except the coffee part.. I stopped going to DUNK$

Make my own at home..