Everyone who wants to get out of the hamster wheel or improve their economy has a big challenge. It’s about being honest with yourself. What are you prepared to sacrifice to reach goals?
As I’ve written about many times, it’s easy to dream and think, but much harder to act. We humans are unquestionably very easy to only look upon life in short terms, especially when it comes to our goals. If we do not get an immediate reward, we tend not to see the profit of changing a behavior.
This applies to most amenities. If you drive a car today, you are probably very well aware that it’s not good for your finances and thus something that counteracts your desire to be free or improve your finances. If you instead decide to invest in a bike you can save money, but also improve your health. You can get a good bike for approximately 5 – 1,000 euros/dollars and if you take care of it you can have it working for you for many miles. It also costs very little per mile when it comes to maintenance and operation, very close to nothing.
If you compare with a car, even a cheap fuel-efficient car, the comparable gain of investing in a bike is several hundred percent. The car also costs fuel, service, maintenance, tires, and more – and a decrease in value as the first year exceeds what your bike costs.
There are of course periods in every year, especially in our country, where the bike is not an especially attractive alternative, when not even the most compelling motivation can not make you ride a bike. Then public transportation is of course an option, and even if you go for public transportation half a year and ride a bike the other half, it’s a much better deal than buying and selling a car.
Nevertheless, you will come back to your own motivation. Are you motivated enough to invest in a bicycle and take the harder option?
NOTE: I know that it is not always practical to replace the car with a bicycle and this is not an article that wants to create a bad conscience for anyone who has to take the car for various reasons. Retrieving and leaving children is such an area that can be very difficult to do by bike, especially if you live outside the town.