Many of you reading this today are likely as mystified as me, watching grown men with Harvard MBA’s pour a trillion dollars down a rat hole and then looking stunned when the ‘rat’ still wants more.  Paulson, in particular, looks like a clueless small boy who convinced his not-to-bright grandmother to buy him a trillion dollar Super Man cape, leaped off the garage roof with it and has fallen ‘splat’ right on his face.  “But the package said it would really make me fly ….”

Welcome to the realities they seemingly didn’t teach you in business school …spend more than you make and the house of cards will tumble.  He should have bought a clue rather than that cape.

If you are planning for retirement, especially retirement in the Philippines, and a lot of your capital is tied up in 401K stock plans and a house that you have watched go down, down down in value, I can safely guess you have a trace of depression and hopelessness in your mind as you read.

So I thought I’d throw out a couple proven ways you can act, right now, this minute, that will improve your outlook and help keep your Philippine dream in mind.  No investment, no Harvard Business School mumbo jumbo, and a 100% iron-clad assurance you can profit. Dave’s Suggestions?  Easy.

Spend less. Recently after I wrote an update on what things cost here in the Philippines I was totally blown away by how little we have spent in the past two years, compared with the money we pissed away thought we had to spend in the last few years in the USA.  Yes, part of the savings are because things are cheaper here … some things.  But the majority of the savings are due to what we could spend, but don’t.  You can profit from this too, even if you are still back there planning to move or even if you have no plans to move here, ever.  You really, really need (as opposed to want) that NetFlix account, a cell phone for every family member, that gym membership you haven’t used in a month …. the list goes on.

Save More. If your mental response to this idea includes the word “can’t” then slap yourself upside the head, get a cup of coffee and re-think.  You can save more, if you decide you want to control your life and provide yourself an end-game, rather than waiting for someone to tell you what is left in the great government give away pot for little old you.  You know when I was a boy the US had a poor rate of personal savings compared to many of our world neighbors.  It has gone downhill steadily ever since.  Today, it is one of the lowest.  Any idea what nation has the highest rate of personal savings?  China.  Yes, the people who likely made the chair you are sitting on and the monitor you are reading these words on.  The country where people stand in line to work in tedious factory jobs for $100 USD per month.  Yep.  those folks have a higher per capita saving rate than any other nation on earth.  Think there is any correlation?  I have no MBA, but I think there is.  Start now, this week, to put money in a savings account.  Even if it’s $10 a week.  Just do it, you certainly can if you want to take action rather then be acted upon.

Here’s one area virtually every one of you can work on … since almost everyone reading this has a car … or two, or three or more.

Get Rid of One or More:  This is one of the most obvious paths to your move to the Philippines .. or paying of your credit cards or sending your daughter to college or whatever future expenditure is weighing heavy on your mind right this minute.  Simplistic?  You bet.  Doable?  In the vast majority of American homes it is.  Might be less convenient, might require some re-scheduling but think of the thousands and thousands of dollars per year than monster in the driveway is sucking out of your life and make the hard decisions.

Slow Down: Time goes by so fast there are probably people reading this post who don’t remember the USA’s “grand experiment” … the 55 mph National Speed Limit.  I drove several round trips from Colorado to Florida during those years and believe me, I don’t want to see a return to that nightmare.  But I know a lot about real gas mileage … installing and monitoring thousands of GPS tracking units in commercial fleets will give you insights that Earl down at the local bar doesn’t have.  In general you can bank on this.  From 55 on up to 75 or 80 mph you pay about 1% per mile per gallon penalty per mile per hour.  So drive at the speed that suits your income.  You be the judge.

Stay Home: “Is this trip necessary?,” is a government slogan much older than “Drive 55”.  How many times a week to you drive someplace only to drive to that same place yet again in a day or two?  How many time sin the past month have you consciously postponed or combined trips?  You’ll find that the absolute best gas savings you can make is to leave the darned thing parked.  Again this sounds simplistic, but the number of people who still use their car as if gas was $0.59 a gallon is simply amazing.  Adjust you thoughts to fit reality.

Walk: If you have a pair of legs that work, use them.  And chauffeuring the kids to this, that and the other thing?  Are you sure it is needed, or is it expected.  You know what surprises me almost every day when I see something on American TV?  How FAT Americans are.  Guess what.  You don’t need a gym membership.  Every mile you walk is money not spent and fat not gained.  And teach your kids to walk.  Do you waste gas driving ‘round and ‘round the mall parking lot trying to capture that elusive space near the entrance?  And then look at yourself in the mirror and see more of you than you want to.  Do you see a cause and effect at work here?

No Left Turns: Huh?  What are you talking about?  Just as simple as the words I wrote.  In the course of a year you make goodness knows how many left turns as you go about your daily life.  think there is no difference between turning right and turning left?  read this:

UPS, the delivery people, decided to re-structure the delivery routes taken by drivers to eliminate as many left turns as possible. Now that may sound weird, but how long have you sat in a left turn lane waiting for oncoming traffic to pass, and how many times have you dreaded crossing into oncoming traffic?

The results have been dramatic. UPS says its 95,000 vehicles shaved nearly 30 million miles off its deliveries in 2007, saving the cost of 3 million gallons of gasoline and reducing truck emissions by 32,000 metric tons.  More on how No Left Turns can lead to the Philippines here.

Translating those big numbers into real-world terms means UPS saved about $125 per vehicle in their first full year of not turning left.  If they can, you can too.  Not to mention one very important factor they didn’t try to quantify with dollars.  Left turns are immensely more dangerous than right turns.  By doing the ‘no left turn’ thing  Brown saved themselves hundreds if not thousands of accidents … and accidents are always expensive … up to and including the ultimate price.  Read this for another intelligent and heartwarming line of thought behind my, at first, bizarre advice:

… As I said, he (the author’s dad) was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she (the author’s mom) was 88 and still driving, he said to me, “Do you want to know the secret of a long life?” “I guess so,” I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

“No left turns,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“No left turns,” he repeated. “Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn.”  Read more here and be prepared for a lump in your throat.

OK, this will put more than the promised $125 in your pocket if you adopt just a few of my suggestions.  I know some may feel it isn’t directly on topic but I’ve been reading the news and feelings a little anxious and depressed.  So I thought, what better way to cure worry and depression than to get busy and do something about the situation.  Action, even tiny actions, mean much more than you think.

A man whom I admire a lot once had the courage to address the American people with these words, “… we choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard …” and people loved him for it. And you know what?  We did what he asked and we felt (justly) proud of ourselves for doing it.  In these troubled times we have no leader with enough cojones to ask you to do what’s hard … just to beg for handouts … so, even though I couldn’t make a pimple on the butt of a real leader, I’ll ask you to do what needs to be done, even if it’s hard.  As we often said on the ranch, “Just git ‘er done”.

Popularity: 3% [?]