The most common question I get is some form of: “When will you get your money back from your solar power installation? How long will it take to break even on your initial investment?”

My question is: Why are you adding this extra condition to anything that helps the environment? You don’t do this for most of other stuff you do.

By Cindy of Stone Marmot
Restaurants appear to only want couples as customers. They really don’t seem to be interested in attracting single people as customers. I’m basing this conclusion on the fact that most coupons issued by restaurants are buy one, get a second meal free or half off. Rarely do they [...]

By Cindy of Stone Marmot
We see in the news all these recent disasters due to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, etc. Many images appear of houses that are totally destroyed and their contents scattered all over. Among these contents are probably a lot of important papers and records. This leads to the possibility [...]

By Sammy of Stone Marmot
In a previous rant I argued that the best place to put your money to get safe and high returns is to pay off your debts. But many people who do have a reasonably amount of money saved up will have a difficult time doing this. Why? [...]

By Sammy of Stone Marmot
Right now the economy is not looking too good. Stock values have dropped dramatically and interest rates are approaching 0 %. Where do you put your money to get safe and high returns?
Simple! Pay off your debts. If you are paying 12 % interest on a [...]

By Sammy of Stone Marmot
Housing market collapsed. The stock market drops almost 40 % in one year. Major banks failing or about to fail. It seems like capitalism doesn’t work.
WRONG!! Most all of this was caused by seemingly well intentioned government intervention into the market place eventually screwing it up. [...]

By Cindy of Stone Marmot
Ben Franklin is claimed to have said that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” This is not true. A penny saved is usually worth more than a penny earned, often a lot more.
In the US, you don’t have to pay federal taxes on any saved money, only [...]

By Cindy of Stone Marmot
The secret to saving money can be summed up in three words: Don’t spend it.
“That is no secret,” you reply. It apparently is to most people. Judging from the behavior of most people, most think the way to save money is to spend every last penny they [...]

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
It is also amazing how many products, such as microwave ovens, regular ovens, televisions, and stereos, still are consuming power when they are assumed to be “turned off.” Many of the manufacturers of these products claim that the consumption of these “phantom loads” is negligible, but this isn’t true [...]

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
How would you like a virtually risk-free investment that earns over 100 % a year … after taxes … and your initial investment and subsequent contributions can be as low as $4? And you would be saving energy and helping the environment, also. A fantasy? No, a real [...]