The exterior of your home is like a shell. By merely improving the insulation, you can make your home much more energy efficient. By sealing leaks, you can make your home cozier and reduce your energy expenditure for space heating and cooling. Your home needs energy day in and day out to keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It uses this energy to provide you with hot water and to run electric appliances like your refrigerator, oven, washing machine and other amenities. A handyman can be of use in making these changes if you’re not up to the task yourself.

Space heating and cooling account for maximum energy use and is the largest energy expense for most homes. Here are a few ideas that you can implement to make your home more cost-effective:

Replace old windows

Replacing old and leaky windows with weatherstripping and storm windows, so that you save on your heating and air-conditioning bills is a great idea. The heat conduction of the walls can be reduced by installing fiberglass, cellulose, and foam insulation materials.

Plant trees around your home

The most economic way to make your home energy efficient is to plant trees in your backyard and front garden. Even if your home is old, a good plantation can save on electricity bills. Landscaping will help prevent the exterior of your home from getting much warmer or colder in extreme weathers.

Install Compact Fluorescent Lamps

Fluorescent lamps are energy efficient. You will be astonished to know that electricity to run a light bulb costs way more than the bulb itself. Turn off the light if you leave a room, even if for a while. Make sure that your devices are not plugged in when not in use. If you are not charging your phone, then remove the plug, or else the power will continue to flow to the device.

Some people find that getting the exterior of their home painted makes their home more warmer inside. Get the cracks, gaps, and other holes in the home’s exterior repaired and you will feel the difference.

Mathew Leonard is a writer for Handyman London.

This is a guest article by Debbie Dragon. What’s up, Debbie?

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Sometimes the recommendations for living a greener lifestyle cost quite a bit of money to implement.  Sure, you can power your home with windmills and a solar panel roof – but the cost of implementing such a lifestyle change puts it out of reach for the typical household.  There are many ways living green can save money, though, and add more of it to your budget.

To see exactly how much the following green-living tips can save you, enter your numbers in a budget calculator – then use your savings to reduce your debt or take a vacation!

Make Your Own Meals:  Save Thousands Annually (Potentially)

The United States Consumer Expenditure reports show that an average family spends about $4,000 a year on restaurants and take out meals.  Not only can you reduce your food budget by thousands by preparing your meals at home, but you’ll start paying more attention to the quality of ingredients you buy, and perhaps plant a fruit or vegetable garden to further your savings and health.  Preparing your own meals is healthier than eating in restaurants, and will cost significantly less.

Try Carpooling: Save $650 to $1400 Annually

Cars aren’t that great for the environment, and with the high costs of filling up, they’re also not so great on our budgets!  If you’re commuting 30 miles a day, and your car averages 23 miles per gallon – you’re looking at about 6.5 gallons of gas a week.  At $3.95 a gallon, you’re spending $25.76 a week to get yourself to and from work.  If you look at the cost of commuting 52 weeks a year, you’re in the $1,300 range for gasoline—and this doesn’t count any other driving you may do, or any other car ownership expenses.

You can reduce the effects of driving on the environment and save money by carpooling.  Share a car and a gas bill for commuting with a friend and you’ll save about $650 a year.  Find a couple more friends, and increase the savings in each of your budgets and reduce the number of cars on the roads day after day.

Recycle Your Electronics: Save a Few Hundred Dollars

What do you do with cell phones and charges you aren’t using anymore? How about laptops and other gadgets once they’ve worn out?  If you’re like most people, you toss them in a drawer out of sight or toss them in the trash.  Instead, recycle your old electronics and get cash.  Try Gazelle.com, or YouRenew.com for details about trading in phones and electronics and how much they’ll earn you.  Throwing electronics in the trash is potentially toxic and not a good move for the environment – so look at methods for recycling them before tossing.

Stop Buying Bottled Water: Save Over $240 Annually

Instead of buying bottled water at $4 or more a case, purchase a water filter that lets you purify tap water.  Not only will you reduce the amount of plastic containers you waste each week, but the savings can really add up.  If you tend to spend $5 a week or more on bottled water, you’re looking at over $260 annually.  Purchase a $20 water filter for your faucet, and keep refilling your glass.  The filters are much less expensive to replace than what you spend on bottled water; and you won’t have all of those plastic bottles to fill up the landfills.

Hang Your Clothes to Dry: Save $85+ Annually

The clothes dryer is one of the biggest consumers of home electricity, to the tune of about $85 a year, according to the California Energy Commission.  Simply hanging your clothes on a dryer rack or outside on a line can save electricity—good for both the environment and your budget.  Further savings are found by air drying clothes because it helps your clothing last longer.  When clothes are tossed in the dryer after each wash, they tend to wear out much quicker than when they’re air dried.  With the average family spending $900 on clothing annually, you could potentially save another few hundred dollars a year by air drying clothes instead of tossing them in the dryer.

Debbie Dragon is a finance writer providing articles for Vertex42.com, which offers a large selection of free spreadsheet templates and financial calculators.

This is a guest post from Alban at Home Loan Finder.

The economy and environment are at the forefront of our minds as governments the world over look for ways to improve the health of both, and as individuals, we try to make the financial and environmental aspects of our lives more comfortable. There are plenty of simple ways you can save money and the environment at the same time around your home, from making your own cleaning products to avoiding aerosol cans. However, if you want to make a real, measurable difference, you need to look beyond the obvious frugal tactics, and consider these 10 financially and environmentally life changing ideas.

1 – Eat less meat

Most nutritionists will tell you that cutting down on eating meat is better for your health, and the spend at the butcher would easily be the biggest portion of most family budgets each week. Therefore, with so many benefits already, the fact that eating less meat is also good for the environment is a bonus.

Research has shown that if we all ate less meat, we could reduce the cost of fighting climate change by $20 trillion. This research takes into account the consumption of beef and pork, and if land was not needed to farm these animals, vegetation would be able to thrive in these areas. Even though additional farmland would be needed to grow the alternatives to meat, less space would be required than is used to farm meat producing animals.

As well as the extra vegetation which would be allowed to grow, millions of tonnes of methane would be saved thanks to reduced emissions from farms. This would negate the need for expensive carbon saving technologies such as clean coal power plants. The methane is also released from the animals themselves, where cows in particular release methane when flatulent, and as their manure decays.

You wouldn’t need to give up eating meat all together, and instead need to look at how meat can accompany other foods, rather than be the star of every meal. If the global population were to eat a low meat diet of 70 grams of beef and 325 grams of chicken and eggs per week , 15 million square metres of farmland could be used for more vegetation to absorb more carbon dioxide. The farmland could also be used to grow bio energy crops which could replace fossil fuels.

2 – Downsize your home

It is easy to think that you need a big house with a games room, three bathrooms, a separate study, guest room and formal dining room. However, if you were to downsize your home to accommodate your family in a bedroom each and one or two living areas you will be able to not only save money on mortgage repayments, heating and cooling costs but you’ll also find more time to spend together as a family for a richer lifestyle outside of your bank account too.

Plus, even if you do remember to turn the lights off when you leave the room, turn the air conditioner up in summer and down in winter and turn off your standby appliances, when your home and living areas are smaller and more compact, you are using less power in less space, and producing fewer emissions.

3 – Look in your own backyard

Your own backyard presents numerous opportunities to be frugal, for example, growing your own vegetables and collecting rainwater for use in the garden and in your home. However, as you’re saving money in your backyard, you can also be landscaping in an environmentally sensitive way to reduce your carbon footprint.

To design a backyard which is affordable to maintain, and also beneficial to the environment around it:

• Design your yard so it requires little or no mowing so you can get rid of your petrol powered lawn mower.
• Plant varieties which are native to your area and so require little to no watering or fertiliser.
• Research companion planting so you can grow your garden without using harmful chemicals, and can instead use natural ecosystems to control bugs.
• Make your backyard a relaxing and inviting place to be and you and your family will be able to enjoy evenings and weekends at home together and save on costly family outings.

4 – Renovate instead of moving

In many cases, reusing materials from old properties and refurbishing existing homes can save more carbon dioxide than building a new home. For example, the construction of a new house generates approximately 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide; however, the renovation of an existing home emits just 15 tonnes.

Plus, there is often little difference between the performance of an old house, compared to a new one, and it can take decades for the operational savings of a newer more energy efficient home to offset the carbon emitted during its construction. As a result, there is almost no difference in the average emissions of a new house, compared to a refurbished house over a 50 year period.

Therefore, while it is more environmentally friendly to renovate your existing home, compared to building a new home from scratch, it can also be much more affordable. When you renovate a home there are many materials you can reuse, even if not in their original capacity, for example, structural timbers taken out to open up a living area could split and sanded to be used for floorboards, a kitchen bench top or a dining table.

5 – Build a new sustainable home

If you don’t have a home you can renovate, building your own home is often more affordable, and better value than buying established where you are paying for landscaping and all of those expensive finishing touches, which might not all be to your liking anyway.

Instead, you can plan for a sustainable and energy efficient new home, which will be affordable and environmentally friendly to build and to run. You can do this by:

• Choosing a passive design. If you can get the design of your home to work to heat and cool your home, then you can save yourself turning on the air conditioning and heating. For example, using glass in measured architectural designs can mean warmth is admitted in the cooler months, and kept out during the summer months with modern glazing methods.
• Heating and cooling ratings. When you purchase the heating and cooling system for your new home, look at its energy star rating as the more stars it has, the more energy efficient it is to run. Another environmentally and financially friendly option is to choose a ducted system, with individually controlled vents, which allows for the system to be turned off in any room which is not being used.
• Solar or gas hot water. Solar and gas hot water systems are the two most energy efficient systems to heat the water in your home, and you can make your unit even more efficient by insulating around your hot water pipes – the first two metres from the hot water system in particular. You can also choose a hot water system based on its Renewable Energy Certificate which determines the performance of the system – the more RECs the better the system.
• Lighting. In your new home, make sure you install energy saving light bulbs, and choose the lowest wattage you can for an area to save power. Also, while down lights have become very fashionable in new homes, try and avoid them when building as you will need a lot to light up a room, and a lot of heat can be lost through the holes in the ceiling where the lights are housed.
• Solar power. When you build a new home, consider running it on solar power from the beginning as panels on your roof can collect enough sunlight and convert enough electricity to power your home, and have power left over to send back into the grid to power other homes and businesses.

6 – Your free time is free

If you are looking for ways to save the environment, and some money, start by looking at home – and staying there. Spending time with your family at home or around your neighbourhood can reduce your carbon footprint, and save you money in fuel and long distance family holidays. Consider the emissions you would produce going on long road trips or towing a caravan around the state, or even towing your boat down to the shore. Instead, find affordable holiday destinations closer to home, or rent a caravan at a caravan park when you arrive, instead of using gallons of fuel to tow your own, or fish from a jetty or the beach instead of towing your boat to the ocean, and then burning fuel all day out on the water.

7 – Creative clothes shopping

Have you ever looked at every item in your closet and thought about how many times you’ve worn it? Chances are that while you have your favourites, there are dozens of pieces which you’ve only worn once or twice, and others you haven’t worn at all. So the next time you see a skirt on sale, or a pair of shoes you think would be perfect for your son, think of all the clothing, materials, time and money which have already gone to waste in your wardrobe, and consider whether this really is a smart purchase.

To reduce the impact of your clothing purchases, look for more creative ways to expand your family’s wardrobe. For example, if you get together with friends to swap hand-me-downs, it doesn’t matter if your daughter doesn’t like the top you chose for her, because it is being reused, not wasted from new.

8 – Stop using your car

This doesn’t mean you have to start walking everywhere – although you would certainly be able to save on a gym membership – but instead, simply consider whether you really need to drive to where you’re going. With a little planning and organisation, you can cut down your vehicle usage, and save on the wear and tear of your car, fuel costs, and fuel emissions.

For example, make a list before you go shopping so you don’t have to go back to the supermarket for forgotten items, wait to go to the post office until it is time to pick up the kids from school so you can make one trip.

Your family may even be able to look at getting rid of a second car with some organisation and timetable scheduling. For example, if the family left earlier in the morning, you could drop off the kids at school, and your partner at work, rather than you both taking a car each to work. You can then organise a car pool home from school for the kids.

9 – Switch your car’s fuel

Petrol is one of the most expensive and environmentally damaging fuels you can be running your car on, and if you are able to convert your car to gas or to run on bio-ethanol, the financial and environmental savings can be worth the investment. If you are already looking at buying a new car, consider the fuel it runs on as a priority, right up there next to power windows and Bluetooth, and look for vehicles which produce less harmful emissions running on alternative fuels such as ethanol, hydrogen, electricity and even diesel.

10 – Save your paperwork

Whether you run your own business, work from home, are part of a corporate office environment or are just looking at the contents of your home filing system, you are probably surrounded by paperwork. Curbing your paper use is just one way you can save money and the environment in your office and you can start by:

• Printing double sided when you print documents, or reusing old printed pages.
• Having bills sent electronically, rather than posted as paper printouts, you also often save several dollars for receiving electronic bills and bank statements.
• Making notes electronically on your computer desktop, your email manager or your smartphone to save on note paper and Post-its.
• Think twice and three times before you print a document or email.
• Organise the files on your computer for easy access to electronic documents as this will retrain you to search electronically for the information you need, so you can avoid printed copies of your work.

Alban is a personal finance writer at Home Loan Finder, a home loan comparison site.

This is a guest post by Timothy Ng.

Saving money is a big deal, but saving the earth is an even bigger deal. That said, imagine how big a deal it would be if you could do both at the same time. It’s completely possible. If you were to look at your household budget, you’d probably see plenty of places where you could cut back on spending. But, if you looked at it with a ‘green eye,’ you could not only cut back a bit, but live better and help out mother earth in the process.

Energy Efficient Savings Tips

1. Unplug Electrics

It’s not always enough just to turn off electrical devices in your home, although that’s a great first step. Go around your house and unplug everything that’s reasonable: second television sets, lamps, alarm clocks in spare bedrooms, etc. Everything that’s not essential, like the refrigerator, should be unplugged. Then, only plug those items back in while you are actually using them. You’ll realize two things; the first is there are loads of electrics that never get turned on and second that your utility bill is lower. Even though it doesn’t seem like a lot, all of those appliances still draw electricity when they’re off. Unplug and save money. It’s that simple.

2. Make Cleaning Supplies

Most cleaning supplies we buy at the market are filled with caustic chemicals or bleach. Even though they might work to get our homes clean, they can also do damage to our bodies as we breathe those fumes or to our stuff as the chemicals slowly eat away at finishes. You can make your own cleaning supplies with a variety of recipes easily found on line –things like club soda and vinegar are excellent cleaning agents without all of the harsh chemicals. You can even find recipes that add essential oils to give your home a pleasant and clean scent.

3. Go To The Farmer’s Market

This one might not seem like a big money saver as there are a lot of people who thin farmer’s markets are more expensive. This is somewhat true; the prices can be a little higher on some items. However, not everything is more expensive and the added cost is often negligible. More importantly, if you’re buying local you will save money on petrol and you’ll be eating better, more healthy foods. That means you’ll feel better, have less risk of illness, and make your corner of the world a bit greener all at the same time.

4. Skip The Restaurants

Going out to dinner is nice. We all like being waited on and not having to clean up dishes. The downside is the cost. Even cheap meals eaten out can cost double that of a homemade meal. Add to that the fact that, if you eat at home, you’ll eat healthier food and less of it. Now it’s easy to see why cutting down on the restaurant fare is a big savings. If you feel lost in the kitchen, then ask for some advice or take a cooking class. Before you know it, you’ll be making gourmet meals your whole family will enjoy.

5. Stop Drinking Bottled Water

Just stop. Bottled water really is a scam. There have been loads of tests that have proven that water from the tap is no worse for you then the water from a bottle, and in some cases, even has less bacteria and chemicals. Those plastic bottles release terrible pollutants into our air when they’re made and then clog up landfills for hundreds of years when we’re finished with them. Make yourself a promise right now never to buy bottled water again. Instead, purchase a few high quality reusable water bottles and use them when you’re on the go, or just drink your water the old fashioned way – out of a cup.

6. Find A Carpool

Petrol is expensive. The fumes your vehicle releases into the atmosphere do immeasurable damage to it. So, why not cut out as much driving as you possibly can? Arrange carpools for as many activities as possible. You could have one for work, one for the kids school, one for all of those after school activities, and even one for the weekly grocery or farmer’s market run. It’ll save time and money. You’ll probably have so many people who want to participate that you’ll need two cars.

7. Make The Light Bulb Switch

If you’re still using incandescent light bulbs, it’s time to get rid of them. Compact fluorescent bulbs are more energy efficient and safer to use because they don’t get hot. Forget about that minuscule amount of mercury that’s in them and how it will be disposed. Right now, they’re your best bet to save money and energy. Also, check with the store that you purchase them from about recycling and disposal programs which will ease your mind about the dreaded mercury.

8. Stop Buying New Books

That doesn’t mean stop reading books. You should definitely continue reading, but cut back on buying new books. We need trees more then we need books. Instead of buying them new, check them out from the library or buy them used. If you have the money, invest in an electronic book device like an iPad or a Kindle so that you can simply download books.

It’s easy to make saving money and saving the earth a joint mission. Once you get started you’ll surely come up with lots more ways you can make budget cut while greening up your home. A greener home and more money in the bank is a winning plan for everyone.

Timothy Ng is an experienced personal finance writer, specialising in credit card comparison. Check out his guide to the best credit cards where he’ll step you through the process of finding the best credit card.

Don’t you remember what your mom always said growing up when you wanted to do something stupid that all your friends were doing?

“If Billy jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”

Lots of times I would answer “yes” under my breath before I gave up arguing.  I knew once that line came out, all hope was lost.

Mom had good advice, though.  It’s usually a safe bet that if everyone’s doing it, there’s something to be suspicious about.

We know this, but we’re social creatures.  We want to do what our friends are doing.  We want to fit in.

Well, guess what all your friends do?  They buy air conditioners, fans, and drapes in the middle of the summer because it’s sunny and they’re hot.

In the winter, they switch course and pick up space heaters, sweatshirts, and extra insulation for their homes.  Makes sense. It’s cold out.

They repeat this buying pattern ad infinitum.  They run into a situation that causes them discomfort and immediately seek to fix it.

Perfectly natural reaction, but it’s draining their wallets and not doing any favors for the planet since they’re not likely to make wise, earth friendly decisions when the gun’s to their head.

You don’t want to be like that.  Every salesman knows the fastest way to make a ton of money is to sell stuff to people that are desperate.

Side note: If you’re behind on rent and desperate for cash, consider selling Viagra, hair loss formulas, or air conditioners (but only in the summer).

I want to help everyone make eco-friendly purchases and save money when they need to solve problems like being miserably hot or cold.  And I don’t want anyone to suffer through half-ass solutions because they can’t afford to do the right thing at the last moment.

That’s why I want you to start planning out your seasonal purchases so that you can save all kinds of money.

I’m not going to say “all it takes is a little planning.” That would be making light of it.  You’re busy.  I’m busy.  We’ve got a lot on our minds every day.

When it’s hot outside, it’s hard to think about what you’ll need when it gets cold.  When you’re sitting in your house freezing your buns off, the last thing on your mind is how miserable you’ll be when it’s 100° and you’ve got no drapes to keep the sun out.

But this is kind of thinking is exactly what’s necessary.

A new furnace is expensive no matter when you buy it, but it’s really expensive if you wait until the middle of winter when you can’t go a day without it.  Buy it in the summer and take your time choosing the most efficient one that fits inside your budget.  You’ll get more for your money because there’s no pressure to buy.

I have an old window air conditioner from back in my less than earth conscious days sitting in my basement.  Last summer when it was over 100° for a week straight, Portland, Oregon was completely sold out air conditioners.  People were paying hundreds of dollars for tiny old units like mine on Craigslist.

I honestly considered selling it before my conscience kicked back in.  Now, in December, I’d be lucky if I could give it away.

When you plan ahead for your future needs, you take away the power those salesmen wield in times of desperation and give it back to yourself.

Now, every situation is different and certain types of items require slightly different tactics to get the best deal, but here are a few questions to ask yourself when you decide that you no longer want to be at the mercy of the market:

When is everyone else buying it?

If all your friends buy it during the winter, could you save by buying it in the summer?  Maybe a better option is to buy it right at the end of the season its intended for?

Here’s a seasonal buying guide from Kiplinger for common consumer goods and services to get your thinking on the right track.

For the eco-aware, you’ll want to start taking that information and overlapping it with the greenest options of whatever you’re looking for.

What’s the most responsible option for me?

With all the time you now have to plan, what’s the best choice for you?

When you buy in the moment, you’re likely to overpay for features that you don’t really need and give little thought to the environmental impact of your purchases.  Figure out what you really need and don’t pay for more.

On the other hand, when you’re desperate, you’re also likely to pay for something inadequate that serves as little more than a temporary band aid.

Do I really need this at all?

When you’re lost in a sea of agony and just want something to fix your problem, you’re more willing to pay for something you don’t actually need at all.

By planning and giving yourself time to find the best option, you might realize that there are other, much better choices to solve your problem.

You might have thought you needed air conditioning to beat the agonizing heat, but, after running the numbers, you realize that more home insulation and a few carefully placed ceiling fans can keep you cool all summer.

Without the time to consider all your options, you’re less likely to think of alternatives.

If you’re a busy person, it can be tough to get your mind out of the present and plan for the future, but doing so can unlock a whole lot of new opportunities for you.

Try to find one day, maybe on a weekend, each season, where you can plan out your future needs and strategize how best to meet them.

Do you have any tips for making the most responsible purchases? Have any rules that you follow to make sure you buy at the right time for you?

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Image of trees by 1Sock

Have you ever wondered where the money you use every day came from?

The other day I found myself thinking about how it came to be that a piece of paper was a fair trade for something as big and useful as, say, a house or a car. Who came up with that idea?

Is money something that just doesn’t make a lot of sense to you? Do you sometimes feel disconnected from your finances or find it hard to save money even though you make enough of it?

If you do, you’re not alone. The money system that we use today is not intuitive. It disconnects us from the resources that made it valuable to begin with.

A quick look at how the system developed shows how the path we’ve taken removes what we really find valuable from money and can have a real negative effect on you, me and, as a result, our environment.

The Barter System

Before we established governments, currencies, and trade systems, if you wanted something that someone else owned, you had to have something of equal or greater value to trade for it. If you raised pigs and needed a carriage for transportation, you had to barter with a carriage maker.

The carriage maker knew exactly how much work it took to build his carriage and how much food he needed in return if he were to sell it and build another.

You knew exactly what it took to raise a pig. This was central to your way of life.

But what if the carriage maker didn’t need a pig? What if he needed a cow? You’d have to go barter your pigs with a cattle farmer and then trade your cow for a carriage.

The value we placed on the things we traded were extremely intrinsic, but also highly inefficient.

So, we found a precious metal, gold, that was coveted for it’s rarity and began using it as a broker for transactions.

The Gold Standard

Gold turned out to be a pretty good medium for facilitating trade. Everyone wanted it, so you knew if you had some, you could trade it for something you needed.

Even if someone didn’t want it, they’d accept it anyway because they knew they could quickly trade it with someone else that did.

So now we have gold as a worldwide currency. Rock on.

However, as population grew and transporting large masses of gold became more difficult, we came up with a clever idea.

We didn’t need to actually carry all that weight around. We could just make certificates that represented the gold and our lives would be much easier.

The government would guarantee that this paper used as payment could be traded for a specific amount of gold whenever necessary.

Problem solved! All that gold could sit in banks and we’d just carry around some paper to trade for the stuff we needed.

Now, we don’t really know how much these pieces of paper are worth, but we know we can trade it for gold anytime we want and gold is really valuable.

Well, at least we know those pigs we’re raising are worth bit of it. How many degrees of separation is that?

But now population is growing substantially. This gold that backs up our currency is getting scarcer and scarcer as more people compete for it.

Poverty is creating misery, we can’t mine enough gold to keep up, and we need more money to keep those Commies from turning our great nation all red!

Fiat Currency

So forget the gold! We don’t need it anymore!

Somewhere down the line, we decided that if we couldn’t accumulate enough precious metals to back up all the money we needed, we’d just abandon it all together and start printing more of it.

Now all that’s left is a piece of paper. But don’t worry, your government will put it’s money where it’s mouth is and let you pay your taxes with it.

Today, we live in a world of fiat currency. What this means is that the pieces of paper that we pay our debts with has value because (and only because) the government says it does. There is no physical object that it’s related to anymore. No gold. No nothing. Just the proverbial handshake of Uncle Sam.

If we decide that more money is needed to benefit our economy, we just print more. If there’s too much, we can collect and destroy it.

All of a sudden, the value of our currency is decided on by a select group of people who make decisions about how much of it should be in circulation.

When they decide to print more money, each bit becomes less valuable through dilution. When they decide to print more, the opposite is true.

Your Finances & The Environment

So what effect does all this confusion of a fiat currency have on your finances and how is it affecting our environment?

It seems to make it more difficult to decide how much we should be paying for something.

We still know how much our pigs are worth and we have an idea of how much that carriage we need is, but the vehicle we use to exchange them can now fluctuate wildly on the whim of a few people, making it harder for us to gauge how many dollars (or whatever unit of currency) should be needed to make that transaction happen.

Since a fiat currency system relies on the general principle that we’ll slowly but steadily add more money to the system to keep it growing and thriving, money loses value over time, requiring more of it to buy the same thing later.

This is called inflation and it rewards spenders while punishing savers.

Why save money when what you’re saving for will just be more expensive once you think you’re ready to buy it?

Inflation existed when gold was the currency of the world, but to a much lesser extent since mining more of it quite a lot harder than just cutting down more trees to print more money.

There’s a finite amount of gold to be found on this planet, whereas, we can always plant more trees to print more money.

This is where the credit industry has made a killing.

When used wisely, credit can be a great tool in a fiat money system to buy something now and pay for it later at a lesser realized expense to you.

However, credit is easily abused and many people thinking they need something now find themselves in a tangle when they don’t realize they couldn’t afford it.

It goes without saying that this “gotta have it now” mentality that is fostered by a money system like this is incredibly damaging to our environment as people attempt to collect more and more now to hedge against higher future prices only to end up bankrupt, starting over again.

And an apparently unending supply of money provides the fuel of this vicious cycle.

I am all about maintaining a mindset of abundance, but based on the cycle that we seem to be set on, a lot of people appear to be doing it wrong.

What do you think? Is it too late to go back to a gold secured currency? What else could be used to connect our money with what the Earth has to provide?

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Monopoly money image by rutty

We’re all different and that’s what makes life beautiful, right? Growing up, we all navigate different avenues, make different decisions that impact our lives, and draw different conclusions from the same information. The culmination of all these differences are what come to make us uniquely “us.”

This is largely related to the fact that everyone possesses their own unique learning profile, meaning that we are naturally inclined to learn better from specific types of inputs and are predisposed to perform better at certain tasks than others.

This is something that we all recognize intuitively, but have you ever considered that it might explain why you’ve got a knack for understanding and caring for the environment, but have thousands of dollars in credit card debt and can’t seem to dig yourself out?

8 ways to be a genius

There’s a gentleman by the name of Howard Gardner who understands this. From 1983 to present, he’s developed the Theory of Multiple Intelligences to challenge the generally accepted measurements of intellect.

According to Gardner’s studies, there are 8 ways that a person can express the intelligence that they naturally possess. They are:

• Linguistically – People with linguistic intelligence have a natural affinity for reading, writing, speaking and listening. They’re often good at explaining and teaching.

• Logically – If you possess logical intelligence, you’re probably good with abstractions, numbers, and complex math.

• Spatially – Those with spatial intelligence usually have a talent for visualizing and manipulating objects and ideas. This is a common trait of the artistic.

• Bodily-kinesthetically – If you’re good with your hands or find that you learn the best by doing an activity, you probably have a strong kinesthetic intelligence.

• Musically – People with a strong sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, and tones usually have a great musical intelligence.

• Interpersonally – If you have interpersonal intelligence, you’re likely extroverted and can easily read others’ moods and temperaments. You probably work well in groups.

• Intrapersonally – People with a very strong sense of self and internal understanding have what’s called intrapersonal intelligence.

• Naturalistically – Those with naturalistic intelligence are highly aware of their environment, can understand how ecosystems work, and can be talented with communicating with animals.

Interesting list, no?

Now consider for a second the relevance of each of these intelligences to understanding how you and the natural world work versus, say, the manmade construct of money. I’m not insinuating that you have to be primarily a logical learner to understand money, but it sure would help, wouldn’t it?

What’s your learning profile?

So what are you supposed to do if you’re not naturally inclined to understand and appreciate the math behind the conventional rules of personal finance?

I suppose it would help to begin by understanding your learning profile. Most of us probably have at least an idea of how we learn best, but it might help to have an idea of our other supporting intelligences to help us gauge the best way to approach what feels like a complex topic.

There are a lot of tests out there that aim to give you a snapshot of your learning profile. I know because I spent all day finding and taking them.  I recommend this test from the Learning Disability Resource Community. I liked it the best for these reasons:

• At 80 questions, it felt very comprehensive.

• I felt the results were accurate.

• The questions were worded in ways that made it easy to select appropriate answers.

• No email address or other personally identifying information was required to get my results.

Speaking of results, here’s a snapshot of my learning profile:

As you can see, I’m highly musical and kinesthetic. Also, I’m not very interpersonal or naturalistic. It’s true, this stuff doesn’t come naturally to me.

On improvement

To this day, personal finance and money, when they’re taught at all, are still taught with very mathy overtones. This is a roadblock for most of us.

So what could a guy like me do if I wanted a better grasp of my personal finances? I would need to find a way to relate it to the musical and kinesthetic intelligences that I already possess.

When I developed my first budget, I started tracking how much money I was spending on CDs, records, and recording equipment.

As it turns out, it wasn’t all that much and I had other parts of my life that needed a lot more attention, but relating money to music was the first step I had to take to get my brain to even accept the fact that money management was now going to be a part of my life.

It’s what got me to say, “Hey, I can do this!” I couldn’t have begun to understand it any other way.

From there, I went to an all cash budgeting system and almost entirely stopped using my credit card. Taking the physical dollar bills out of my wallet and counting them out each time I bought something really played to my kinesthetic intelligence.

Removing the barriers to successful personal finance and working from basic concepts with my natural intelligences gave me the sense of understanding that made me want to keep improving.

Putting it all together

Today, I’m on an all-credit, fully-automated budget tracking system that works perfectly for me, but starting out with what made sense at the time is what it took to get here.

Money, budgets, and personal finance were scary words not that long ago. Music and handwork were comfortable and familiar.

The human mind is a complex organ with all kinds of built-in roadblocks. Learning to connect with yourself and your natural strengths will help you to address foreign ideas and concepts with less fear and hesitance.

What are your primary natural learning styles? How can you incorporate them to improve your understanding of personal finance?

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Light bulb image by Caveman 92223

In the world of personal finance, there’s a lot of emphasis given to the net worth calculation.  There’s plenty of debate about how much attention should be focused on it, but most everyone agrees that it’s a good tool to quickly gauge the health of your finances.

For those not familiar with the calculation, it’s simply the value of all your money and belongings minus the value of any debts you owe.  Generally speaking, if your net worth is increasing on a monthly or yearly basis, then you have healthy personal finance habits.  If it’s decreasing, you might need to take a second look at how you’re managing your money or you eventually risk running out of it and digging a very deep hole of debt.

How can those of us living environmentally conscious lives apply this to our own situation? It seems there ought to be a way to quickly gauge our progress or regression in our pursuit of sustainability.  We need to be able to look at our “environmental net worth.”

What is Environmental Net Worth

What would an environmental net worth be?  Well, on a basic level, it would be just like any financial net worth calculation – the sum of your environmental contributions minus your grievances. By adding up everything you’re doing to make the world a better place and subtracting the things that could be perceived as damaging, you can get a quick look at your overall contribution to society.

You could track your environmental net worth over time and see how you’ve progressed. You’d be able to tell if you’re growing and developing by contributing more to a healthy planet. Or, you could identify dips or regressions and find what may have caused them and how to avoid them in the future.

Why is it important?

An environmental net worth calculation is important for the same reason that it’s important to personal finance – it can demystify a seemingly convoluted and confusing situation.

Many people go through life not knowing whether what they’re doing is actually working or not.  There’s usually an intuitive feeling of progress or regression, but for many, it’s just not accurate.  Just as with anything in this world, if it can be measured, it can be improved.

By establishing a way to concretely measure our contributions to the environment, we’ll be better prepared to leave a better world for ourselves and future generations.

How is it calculated?

So how can you calculate your environmental net worth?  This is, of course, the most difficult part.  In a traditional net worth calculation, there’s a really handy tool, we call it money, that’s universally used to measure the value and worth of an object for comparison sake.

In the new environmental economy, such a tool doesn’t really exist yet.  We need a common denominator that we can all use to convert the results of our environmental focus into for comparison’s sake.  Right now, we have a whole bunch of people doing what they think is best, but not a whole lot of data to suggest what really is or isn’t working. 

We need an environmental currency.

The closest thing we have is carbon.  It’s still a bit abstract and calculating your carbon output is not as tangible as, say, counting the dollars in your bank account, but for the time being it’s what we have to work with.

I found this calculator over at nature.org that you can use to get a baseline estimate of what your current carbon “footprint” is.  It may or may not be completely accurate for your situation, but the important thing to take away is the graph at the end comparing the different aspects to the national average.  This will give you an idea of where you can potentially improve.

Remember that,  unlike a traditional net worth calculation, we’re going for the lowest score possible.  Think golf, not basketball.

Where do I stand?

A quick run through revealed that I could really make some improvement in my housing situation.  That makes sense – I live in a big, old four bedroom home with two other people.  It’s too big for us and it’s very drafty since all of the windows are nearly 100 years old.  I kind of doubt there’s even any insulation in the exterior walls.

Since I don’t have any plans to move right now and this is a rental property, the best we can do is add weatherstripping and caulk at all the openings, add insulation in the attic space and, most importantly, get another roommate so that we’re not wasting a bedroom.  The additional body heat won’t hurt, either.

Do you keep track of your environmental net worth?  Where could you make the biggest improvements?

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Carbon Footprint image by Leonski