Last evening I suffered through the worst financial advice a TV/Radio personality could have given a caller. On the Neil Cavuto Show, Dave Ramsey answered a viewers question on what to do about his family vacation, now that gasoline prices have hit an all time high. Dave very smugly told the caller that if he didn't have the money to pay for the gas, he shouldn't go.
Brilliant.
That really solves the problem.
That is if we can get Dave Ramsey and other financial advisers to even admit there is a problem. According to the latest
CPI figures inflation is under control and once gasoline prices are adjusted for seasonal usage, the price of a gallon is on track. Say what? Here's the list:
Seasonally adjusted
Expenditure Compound
Category Changes from preceding month annual Un-
rate adjusted
3-mos. 12-mos.
Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. ended ended
2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 2008 2008 Apr. 2008 Apr. 2008
All items.......... .3 .9 .4 .4 .0 .3 .2 2.3 3.9
Food and beverages .2 .4 .1 .7 .4 .2 .9 6.1 5.0
Housing........... .2 .4 .3 .2 .2 .4 .3 3.7 3.0
Apparel........... .1 .6 .1 .4 -.3 -1.3 .5 -4.6 -.7
Transportation.... .3 3.5 1.0 .5 -.7 .7 -.7 -2.5 7.2
Medical care...... .5 .4 .3 .5 .1 .1 .2 1.6 4.3
Recreation........ .3 .2 .0 .2 .1 .3 -.1 1.2 1.2
Education and
communication.. .3 .0 .3 .4 .1 .3 .4 3.3 3.2
Other goods and
services....... .2 .2 .3 .4 .2 .4 .5 4.8 3.5
Special indexes:
Energy............ 1.0 6.9 1.7 .7 -.5 1.9 .0 5.6 15.9
Food.............. .2 .4 .1 .7 .4 .2 .9 6.3 5.1
All items less
food and energy .2 .2 .2 .3 .0 .2 .1 1.2 2.3
Well Dave, let's try a different scenario. Let's forget about a one week vacation with my family. After all I work 51 weeks a year. What's one more week of staying home? Vacations aren't a necessity. Let's try food. Since the hypothetical 'me' only comes home with $500 per week, I don't have enough cash left over (after paying my standard bills) to afford eating. What should I do? Stop eating? Take on another job? Send my first born to the salt mines?
No. I decided to cancel my cable service completely. I strapped on rabbit ears to my TV and sent away for a $40 voucher for the converter box when digital takes over Feb. 9, 2009. This will save me $70 per month and help me afford the gas for my lousy one week family vacation to an in-state, free, state run park. The $840 I save each year I use my rabbit ears over the expensive, unnecessary cable, will afford me better food and perhaps 2 weeks of vacation next year. It will also save me from listening to elitist, inappropriate, non-sensible financial advice that emits out of your mouth and that of Neil Cavuto.
NOT going on a vacation is NOT solving the high price of fuel costs in this country nor of our insane dependence on foreign oil.
And so it goes.
