How to help the Environment and Make Money too!

No, this is not a spam article designed to get my grubby little hands on your hard-earned dollars or euros by getting you to buy phony bio products (of which there are more and more, unfortunately), but a quick way of making a few thousand. This money-spinner is not an option for all, but if, for example, you live in a city with a reasonably good public transport system, or if your lifestyle could allow you to go for this option, then you really should consider it.

The deal? Simple. SELL YOUR CAR!

Ok ok, I can hear you from here. “I need my car for the shopping/my job/weekends and a million other things” (Delete as appropriate). Well, so did I, or so I thought.

Now please don’t think I’m one of those “What?! You use shampoo?! How can you pollute like that?! You should use a mixture of cow dung mixed with rainwater like I do” types. They annoy me too with their patronising attitudes. In fact, I used to enjoy driving my car, and I still appreciate sleek and well-designed cars. No, I just thought about a few of my pre-conceived ideas and changed them..

Part of my job involves moving around the city of Lyon to visit clients. This used to mean that I really did need my car (nice pic huh?) because my clients are spread out all over the place. So each day I’d get out there and sit in traffic for what added up to many hours a week. I knew all the local radio stations, and every single traffic light and speed radar in town. I also knew that there were so many cars on the roads that there were no short-cuts left that weren’t clogged up by people using short-cuts! Still, that’s part of the game, and I just got used to getting up earlier to compensate for the time I was going to lose listening to one-minute analysis of serious world problems on sound-bite radio.

Then one day I was late for luch with a friend due to traffic problems. She had sold her car some months earlier and she spent that lunchtime persuading me to promise her that I would do a few things when I got home, so I did.

I spread out a map of the city and it’s public transport network on the table, and marked the places where all my clients were situated. Then I figured out the time it would take me to get there a) by car and b) by using public transport. Then I figured out the cost of both options. Then I listed the fors and againsts as I saw them. I was stunned by what I discovered.

Using public transport would save me ten hours a week in the car, and it would save an enormous amount of money. My car cost me, in terms of petrol, insurance, loan (almost paid off, but still), repairs and service, parking tickets etcetera, 450€ (490 USD) a month, whereas using public transport would cost me.........43€ (50 USD) a month!!!! Savings = AROUND 400€ (425 USD) A MONTH! 43 € is the cost of a monthly travel pass which allows unlimited travel all over the city, as well as access to the many public bicycles dotted all over the place.

Other advantages? I get to walk more, I am less stressed out, I see and meet interesting people and I appreciate the city more, because I can now actually look at things when I’m travelling.  If I need a car for a trip around the countryside, I hire one. Disadvantages? None whatsoever.

I would never go back to driving here. When I look at all the traffic jams as I fly by them in priority lanes, or think about them when I’m on the subway zooming under them, or watch people scraping ice and snow off their cars in the morning, I wonder why I didn’t do this years ago....

So, I now have 400€ more a month in my pocket, a healthier lifestyle, and I am helping the environment too!!

Now, if you can, you should really consider this way of making money if it could apply to you. 400 a month is appreciable, don’t you think?.

“Yeah, but what about the “Making a few thousand” you talked about at the beginning? You’re just a conman like all the others”. Is that what you just said? Oh, I’m so sorry, I forgot a detail. The car.

The car? Yeah. The car. I sold it. It put 4800 €, which is exactly 6.185,97 USD using today’s rates, into my bank account!!!

Now, if Sir/Madam would just like to sign right here on the dotted line at the bottom of the contract.........

(Hmmm, a short holiday maybe? A new guitar? Both? Decisions, decisions....)