Commute your way to riches
Monday through Friday, I travel about 12 miles per day.
This includes coffee shops/the library, my CrossFit box, and everyday errands.
Up until just a month ago, I always drove.
But with traffic getting worse and seeing more people on bikes, I thought, what the hell... let me pick up a road bike for a few hundred bucks, and start riding to all of these places.
Here is what I discovered:
I got over the embarrassment of riding a bike as an adult very quickly.
It makes me happy and clears my head.
I get to these places in roughly the same amount of time compared to driving (+/- 5-10 minutes).
I no longer need to squeeze in extra walks or cardio to get enough steps in. This was a constant stress/regret at the end of each day - "f*ckkk, only 4,000 steps!"
I am saving just over $2 per mile when you account for gas, maintenance, insurance (pay per mile), and depreciation.
I no longer have the urge to buy a Porsche GT3 RS.
I think we only need "one nicer car," which is probably a RAV4, as opposed to two newer cars (my BMW 528i is mostly fine, even though it's older) in our near future.
I'll probably take the $6,264 ($522 per month) that I will save this year (and each year) and invest it into one of my accounts, which will likely turn into an extra $853,830.42 at a 9% annual rate of return over the next 30 years.
I am noticing that I am becoming more responsible elsewhere as well. Instead of going to coffee shops each day to work, I am opting for our beautiful nearby library, which is saving me about $7.50 per day (coffee out is so expensive nowadays, especially after tip). I'm making coffee with my $45 Moka Pot instead, which will probably also get invested. This is another $1,965 per year, or an extra $267,844.31 at a 9% annual rate of return over 30 years.
I now have a weird obsession with mechanical things that are cheap that don't break and will last a lifetime instead of their expensive tech heavy predecessors (bikes, moka pot, etc).
And if I can get my girlfriend to buy into doing this as well, and maybe someday my kids, you can essentially double, if not triple, the savings/investing/and happiness.
I think I might one day become the Dad who is riding around the suburbs on his bike with his kido(s) in a sidecar...