What If? you could attend a conference where the theme was thinking outside of the box about technology, entertainment, design, and solving world problems. What if you get 100 actively involved, interesting people together from a city together?

TEDxPeachtree

First, I want to go ahead and thank all of the organizers, speakers, sponsors, and other attendees at the event. You created an excellent environment for the people of Atlanta to see new ideas.

The Speakers and Their Speeches

Josh Elder on Comics in the Classroom

• Not needing 3d glasses to see 3d files (like Avatar) was neat because the presenter showed a normal looking LCD that had a second layer, adding depth to the picture. The viewing angle could be rough, but it was pretty neat.
• Mike McQuary’s,  What if gasoline were $5 a gallon? was a speech about how our lives change when fossil fuel becomes expensive.
• Josh Elder presented on Bringing Comics to the Classroom to better education.
• The American Healthcare system’s failure to compete in terms of innovation by Dr. Ross Mason
• Hip-hop’s effect on the world in terms on Non Violence by Daddy-O
• The Adams, presenting WaterBrick to deliver food, water, and shelter.
• Painting on Water – getting in touch with your roots- by Amy Lee Segami
• Bring the excitement back into travel by Hollis Gillespie
• An Entreprenuerial Look at being a Musician by star violinist Robert McDuffie

With Speakers Amy Segami and Wendell Adams

My Favorite Discussions

The first discussion that I felt passionate about was McQ’s discussion on $5 gasoline and touting the electric car. I disagreed with his speech on a major level when he suggested that the e-car is the “right tool for the job” to go to the local grocery (which he later sent me his marketing material on that agrees with me. I really wish that his discussion would have headed more toward the eventual demise of suburbia and commuting in general, and a realization that the automobile has only been around for about 100 years.

I got to talk to Josh Elder about different ideas with education and my work and experience with Talented and Gifted programs at Roswell High School and where I see students being able to learn and extend their learnings beyond basic media. I really liked how he shows that comics can help overcome learning disabilities. The problem is, is the comic funny or do educational comics become the how to evacuate and airplane comic.

Ross Mason’s speech on healthcare was particularly politically relevant. Ross suffered a head injury during a triathlon that his insurance company somehow claimed was preexisting (triathlon and paralysis?) He pointed out that the “Eastern” medicine view in China leads to a 50% of people with his condition walking again, but in America, that is less than 1%. By being holistic and more full time (weeks of direct physical therapy instead of a day a week.) I’m glad that he didn’t need insurance as much because he has been in private equity and venture capital.

WaterBrick

Adams Present WaterBrick

Probably because I spoke with the Adams more, but this was a very interesting new venture inspired by Jacques Cousteau’s son as a way to reduce PET on the 8th continent. My only concern would be leeching issues. The stack-ability was a fun tangible part too.

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• Some of the presenters had overly complicated powerpoint presentations that should not survive any high school or college presentation, much less a professional presentation. People need to learn not to put books of text on slides. It’s not getting read. (just like this blog, jab)
• The flexible LED screen was very low DPI.
• Watching online TED videos seems like a relative waste of meeting time compared with live presenters.

Cars, Comics, Education, Healthcare, TEDxPeachtree, Travel

So as I noted yesterday in my post on Gold, I breezed through Dave Ramsey’s book. I’m also pretty familiar with his other financial advice due to members of my family also being very financially acclimated. Dave and Clark Howard both have a group of every day expenditures that they like to call the stupid tax.

Cars

I drive a fancy 20 year old Mazda RX-7, it’s stylish and I paid for it in full in high school, and I come to the somewhat painful realization on road trips that maybe 1 in 10 cars is close to the age or older than mine. I think that the truth that reflects on societies is that my car is noticeably one of the oldest daily driven cars at most colleges and high schools, where it is typically safe to assume that the driver did not pay for the car outright and probably does not pay for the insurance.

1989 Mazda RX-7

In his book, Ramsey has done the research that suggests that the average person with a car loan pays $376 a month, every month of their lives. I don’t know about you, but that is absolutely shocking what people will do for luxury.

In addition to this loan cost, consider your costs of insurance, especially if it’s an almost dead car worth hardly its value in steel, you will save a ton in not having (your fault) collision insurance. For teens, that can double the insurance premium.

Furthermore, when you finance your brand new car, it loses 60% of its value in the first 4 years as a depreciating asset that is likely to suffer damage and wear.

Dave Ramsey goes on to suggest that you should look at cars that are 2-4 years old and that the majority of millionaires own these older cars as their “new” cars. That warranty tends to not be worth it either. As an example, I was looking at cars this December and ran into a premium edition Infiniti G-35 with 50k miles for only $15k (the new ones were right around $30k.) Bringing me to a small and optional point Learn to Drive a stick… you might enjoy it and you will save about $2k on many cars.

The 14-20 year loans that some financing arms offer is the most ridiculous part though! I can’t think of anybody who buys a new car and plans on driving it for 10 years… and you would still owe most of the loan amount at the point anyway. So when you sell your car 5 years later without GAP insurance you would still be paying for your own car. (By the way, at the Atlanta Boat Show this year there were $200/month terms for $35k boats over 20 years — which is equally as appalling – especially at the 7% interest they wanted to charge)

Market Wise we all know that GM, Chrysler, and Ford (U.S. companies) are having dreadful sales and I think that a lot of it has to do with the car industry overselling their products. The SUV has changed America, but people don’t need or want to buy a new Suburban, Escalade every two years. And then thing about work trucks, like the F150, most companies keep these trucks for just over four years. But what this means is that there is a limit. GM Sold More cars than they had every sold before in 2007 barely beating Toyota. But there are limits to the  driving need, and unless GM can get that marginal cost down and stop depending on selling infinite  cars in the future then it will never survive in the long run.

I added this to the Environmental category as well because, well, getting more use out of the same 4000lb piece of metal is environmental. My car may not get 35mpg, but it gets slightly above 20 (very comparable to the RX-8), but by not buying another car, I’m reducing the parts and minerals being used in a new one. I’m also saving junk yard space.  Reemember – Reduce comes before recycle, so I’m reducing and encouraging you to do the same.

Finally, I’m going to make your kids hate me. Don’t buy them a brand new car. Don’t give them a car that is worth much or amazingly appealing. I used my dad’s 1991 pickup form 2002-2005 that was won at auction from a company for a reduced price. It got me around just fine. It was pretty safe, reasonable looking, and I had my first off-roading experiences among with other in it. So, get that junker like they suggest in Transformers and let your kids figure out what kind of car is for them.  And remind them not to complain about something that they’re getting for free (or on discount.)

Cars, insurance, kids, Loans, Long term, parenting, Saving