Mini Blog#48 - I’ll walk, Thank You very much.
I was talking to this lady today about parking in downtown Omaha. She parks in the parking ramp that is connected to the tunnel at work and pays $110 dollars a month for a spot there. For an 8 x 12 parking spot!!! I, on the other hand, park about 8 blocks away on a 10 hour parking meter which costs me 75 cents a day. So, for a month, that’s roughly $15.75.
She just couldn’t get over how insane I was to park that far away. She just could not fathom why I would not buy a parking pass. For me the answer is simple and it is a two part answer: One, because it saves me $94.25 cents a month and two, I really don’t mind the walk. In fact, it only takes me about 8 minutes.
How insane am I??? Lets assume the parking prices never change for the next 35 years of my employment. Lets assume that I were to put that $94.25 into a high interest savings account like an ORANGE ONLINE SAVINGS ACCOUNT from INGDirect. Lets assume that the interest rate on that account will be 3% for the next 35 years, even though 6 months ago it was at almost 5% and I have seen it even higher. So if I put in the $1,131 that I save a year by parking at the parking meter, in 35 years I would have…
$70,434.09
So if you have areas in your life where you cut corners to save money and people make fun of you for being frugal, remind those people of the power of compound interest.
Nice. I’m glad we have free parking where I work, but I would do the same thing as you. Don’t forget about the added exercise you get every day from walking 20 blocks.
Comment by Kim — May 30, 2008 @ 8:45 am
Nice if you COULD save the $94.25 a month!
Comment by Mom — May 31, 2008 @ 10:10 am