Today Seth Godin had an interesting post about the benefit of compact fluorescent light bulbs and why they haven’t caught on given the benefits.

So, why have only 6% of all US households installed even one CF lightbulb?

It can’t be the economics. After all, a typical CF bulb saves the user more than $66 over its lifetime. Count the bulbs in your house, multiply by 66…

It can’t be the environmental impact. CF bulbs actually reduce the amount of mercury in the environment, because even though there’s a tiny amount of mercury vapor in each bulb, the amount of coal production they cut down more than makes up for it. Add to that the hundreds of pounds of greenhouse gases they reduce… (if you had to buy and bring home the gases with each purchase, I think it would make a difference in the the relative sales).

And it’s not the geopolitical impact either. If we switched all our bulbs, we could stop importing oil altogether. Without giving up one Hummer.

So, why are people apparently immune to the benefits. I mean, why won’t we even try one of the bulbs?

I’m afraid I don’t have the answer. In addition to the above reasons, one thing people often overlook is that often utilities will PAY for you to use compact flourescent bulbs. Last year I looked into replacing all of the bulbs in my apartment with flourescent bulbs. When I found out that my power company would reimburse me for it, it was a no brainer.

They save money, they’re good for the environment, and they last long so you don’t have to mess around with changing bulbs as often. What’s not to like?

Just to recap, this site was originally to track my progress in saving up $45K to fund my around the world trip. That’s still on the table, but this site also contains my musings on money, career, investing, life, etc. All that good stuff. First the goal for the new year.

Working for other people sucks. Period. The weird thing is that I actually kinda, sorta like my job. It’s not so much this job, but the fact that it is still a job. I think I will be unhappy at work as long as I answer to someone else. I’ve only touched on this in the past, but 2007 will be the year that I get on the ball. It’s time to work for myself. I don’t know when it will happen (not likely this year) or how (although I have some ideas) but it’s time to get serious about this. I’d take half of what I’m making now if I could be my own boss.

Here’s just January 1st update for my adventure fund. December was a decent month, but I suspect January will likely be flat or even decrease slightly due to bills from Christmas being due.

Happy New Year everyone!