Rising gas prices causes people to try many alternative forms of transportation. One that has been getting a lot of coverage in the news is the Segway scooter. Getting about 25 miles to a charge means they are a viable alternative in some circumstances. Having ridden one myself, I can also vouch for the “cool factor” (if only in a nerdy sense of the word) as well. Before you go out and buy one though, consider a much more affordable option that has many of the same benefits: a bike.

People who do the cost analysis of a Segway usually just think about the savings in gas. For example, paying $75 a week for gas ($325 / month) means that you’d recover the Segway’s $5000 asking price (or more depending on model, taxes, shipping, etc) after owning it for about 16 months. Other costs associated with the Segway include

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Few things have as much impact over your personal finances as where you live. For most Americans, housing is their largest expense. Moving to an affordable market can do for your personal finances what years of frugal living in an expensive area cannot.

In her article To Cut Costs, Move to Small Town USA, Liz Pulliam Weston profiled a few families that made such a move and the dramatic personal finance gains that followed. One of those profiled is Rob Bennett, whose book Passion Saving: The Path to Plentiful Free Time and Soul-Satisfying Work, is on my list of books to review for Richer by the Day. In his profile, Rob mentioned two things missing from his new small town, a movie theater and a bookstore. You might think that such amenities are a small price to pay for a lower cost of living, and you’d certainly be correct. I have another strategy to cut costs, but without such down sides.

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photo credit: lisatozzi

Ask nearly any personal financial adviser about the risks and rewards of playing the Lotto and they’ll tell you the same thing: It’s a waste of money. What is often lost in that advice is that there’s more to the Lottery than the potential for riches.

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My latest book review is for Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit The Super Rich - And Cheat Everybody Else.

When I first heard that Perfectly Legal was written by someone who works for the New York Times, I was hesitant to waste my time, fearing that the book would have the same liberal bias that makes the paper hardly worth a glance. I was pleasantly surprised that author David Cay Johnston largely succeeded in presenting a balanced view of the issues surrounding the tax system. In fact, I only thought “what a load of crap” a few times throughout the book, and only yelled it out once. Even the sections with which I did not agree were valuable because they presented an alternative view and inspired consideration. I can imagine that the author would be open to debate the issues, giving respect to those with differing opinions. The entire book was well presented, well written, and seemed to present the issues in a completely unbiased manner.

I particularly enjoyed

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Most of the advertisements reviewed on Richer by the Day are directly related to personal finance. Budweiser’s Swear Jar ad inspires further discussion, though it doesn’t directly deal with personal finance. In the ad, office workers, who are required to place 25 cents in a jar each time they swear, beginning swearing a lot when they hear the money will be used to buy Bud Light.

Watch the ad, sourced from YouTube. (The ad contains censored profanities)

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The recipient of the first book giveaway has been chosen and notified by email. They will be receiving my copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. Anyone who is interested in purchasing a copy of the book can find it here on Amazon.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a review of the book I’m currently reading, Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston.  Be sure to make yourself eligible for that book giveaway, which will be held on June 22nd.

There’s an old saying on Wall Street that when you start getting stock tips from cab drivers it’s time to sell. The theory goes that if the market is doing so well that everyday people are buying into it, it’s probably overvalued and likely to fall. The opposite is also true. Though I haven’t ridden in a lot of cabs lately, everywhere I look I see people saying how risky the stock market is right now.

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Predictably Irrational made economics entertaining in much the same way as Freakonomics. The fact that I enjoyed both of these books probably indicates my appreciation of behavioral economics in general. In Predictably Irrational, author Dan Ariely presents counter-intuitive theories and backs them up with very interesting experiments. He seems to have one of those jobs that appears more fun than what most of us do for a living.

What follows are quick overviews of each of the chapters. These overviews are not meant to trivialize the work presented but rather whet your appetite for a more thorough explanation.

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