Possibly the Biggest Money Saving Idea for City Employees!

As promised, here is the next post with the next big idea. How to save big money. Really big money. How big? How about $1,000? Would you believe $10,000? Well personally, I have saved all this and more. Can you guess what I'm talking about? Yes that's right, it's public transportation. Now, if you are already doing this then you are already saving the money and if you are not already doing this, I am sure it's because you need the car at work. Well, you need to re-think that idea carefully.

First, a little about costs. Just how much does it cost you to drive your car anyway? A good objective measure is to calculate how much it costs to drive a mile in your car. The calculation is not too hard, just add up all the costs of driving the car. I mean all of them, not just the gas. You buy tires, change the oil, pay for insurance, pay for repairs, oh, and you have to actually buy the car and probably pay interest on the loan. Add this all up and divide it by the miles you drive and you get a cost per mile. Now, before you go to all that work, consider this: the IRS has already done this for you. You know the IRS, known as the Infernal Internal Revenue Service. They are not known for giving you overly large deductions, so you can be sure that the amount that they allow for a business mileage deduction ($0.55 per mile) is not going to be overly generous. I have done the calculations and the $0.55 per mile pays for a simple Ford Ranger pick up truck and all the expenses of driving. This is what we pay in the City to employees who have to use their vehicle in the course of business. In fact, the unions convinced the City that this is not even enough, and so we pay our inspectors an additional $55 a month to supplement that IRS figure.

Now what about public transportation? Lets take the train for example. My current train pass costs $168 a month. My train trip is 27 miles, so in an average month, I travel 27(miles) x 2(times per day) x 19(days per month) or 1,026 miles on the train and connecting transportation. That equals about 16 cents per mile (1,026 /$168). I won't even get into the fact that I get $50 back from the City and my parking is free. Lets just say, 55 cents per mile car cost minus 16 cents per mile train cost equals 39 cents per mile savings x 1,026 miles traveled a month = $400 per month savings.... really!

Try multiplying that by 12 for the amount saved in a year, adding in the transit subsidy, adding in all the train friends and networking that takes place and you have quite a deal. There is nothing quite like having a hard day at work, getting on the train and running into one of your train friends to share the ride home. Quite the deal!

The savings math is even better with a van pool, however, you are on a fixed schedule. I personally like the trains because of the flexibility, and they are smoother, and you can stand up and walk around if you want to.

Oh, and about the car that you need downtown - there are lots of ways around that problem, such as checking out a car, getting a ride with friends, spouses, other public transportation, dial-a-ride, taxis, etc. You can pay for a lot of transportation with $400 a month.

So that's my big idea for the month. I hope you liked it.