Remember, reuse is better than recycle. It would sometimes cost the environment less to keep driving your current gas car till its end of life rather than buying a shiny new electric car.

I am honestly so happy to see the return of 'RUN THE NUMBERS'!

The low-flow shower head doesn't save heaps of money, but as someone living in California that actual water savings is HUGE! We're gonna have another record drought to deal with this year and every drop counts!

I invested in solar panels on my house. It was $33,000 but I have no regrets. This video pointed out all the things I really care about. Thank you for making it.

You two inspired and prepared me to start my small home soap business last year and make the focus something I care about. So my husband and I only use cruelty free, sustainably sourced materials and donate a part of each sale to fight climate change! Thanks Two Cents!

one of the most green things you can do is buy clothes used. you will save a ton of money and super green since no new material is needed.

While I absolutely agree 100% that personal responsibility towards climate change is important, let’s not forget that the best way to save money is through economies of scale. That means getting large corporations and governments to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to large scale, high-impact solutions to climate change. If you really care about the environment, invest just as much of your time and energy pushing for green policies as you do in personal green practices. The planet will thank you.

"Run The Numbers" straight into our hearts

as a math & physics nerd, i am ENTHRALLED by the extended version of 'run the numbers' this time around 👏🏼🤣

I get so excited when it's time to RUN THE NUMBERS!!

Yes!! My job as a Street Scrapper is certainly Green and I've never made more money in my life.

I'm reeling from the thought of Sam's home with 40 light bulbs on for 5 hours a day. How big is her home? How many people share it? Is she in the Arctic Circle, with low light levels? We just worked out that we might, possibly, maybe reach an equivalent of 4 bulbs for 5 hours - though not all at the same time, and less in summer! When calculating the savings on the showers, we can include the cost of the water, as our water is metered, charged by the cubic metre. (You guessed it - we're in the UK!)

When electricity is costly, believe me, you will go green pretty quick

My boy really called me out with that 2010 accord.

Thank you so much for making a video like this! People naturally have trouble seeing our impact so far out into the future but breaking up the numbers into months and dollars really makes such a daunting mission feel more achievable. My ears perked up at the cost comparison between two jackets cause I've been attending a lot of webinars concerning fast fashion lately. An individual may be seeing a smaller price tag at check out, but the real cost comes once you follow the trail of where the shirts materials came from and who farmed it, and where it was assembled and who sewed it together. So perhaps in a way, it isn't that the shirt from the sustainable brand was more expenseive, but rather that that's the _real_ cost of making a shirt. It really forces you to cherish every little thing you own and can even test your creativity and perseverance on how to get the most out what you already have.

I'm glad you also touched on the other (more important) reasons to go green near the end. Too often people only look at the bottom line and declare something a poor investment.

I am so happy to see the return of " RUN THE NUMBERS"! Watching you guys all the time inspired my husband and I a lot. I'm 51 my husband 56 we are both retired with over $3 million in net worth and no debt. Currently living smart and frugal with our money. Saving and lnvesting lifestyle in the solar panel and watching you guys all the tim made it possible for us this early. Thanks to FIRE movement and the Two Cents too

This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg. Living a bit frugally and shopping 2nd hand for example can save hundreds or thousands pretty quickly! Eating plant based (assuming you don't shop all the expensive meat replacements) is also a great way to spend less in the store!

You forgot about the other, more important Rs in going green. Reduce and Reuse. You could save a lot more money doing those 2

Recycling isn't as good as we were all told. Lots of items aren't recyclable/isnt recycled and most of this movement was created by the plastic industry. "Its okay to buy plastics and these materials bc its recyclable, buy more!" Check it out for yourself!

Totally missed the opportunity to address Heat Pumps. AC/Heaters, and Water Heaters. This is the lowest hanging fruit out there next to LEDs for big homeowner savings and climate impact.

You know what would be really cool? A countries 101 series where you go through their basics of saving, investing, spending habits for your non American viewers, like I know you have a large Indian audience, and I’d love a whistle stop tour of British finances!

As a fellow math nerd and a person who deeply cares about our environment, I am very pleased with this video. Thank you.

This is a great video! In addition to what you two talked about, reducing general consumption of products will save money and reduce your emissions. Most importantly, reducing your consumption of animal products is the biggest action you can take -- and it will save money (and animals' lives)!

This was such a great video. Very balanced representation of the cost of going green. Personally, i find that some green options are unaffordable. But i try to make small changes where i can: carrying my own water rather than buying,carrying a shopping bag rather than taking plastic bags, reusing plastic packaging whenever i can.

Talking about finances is taboo in my area. It's considered an insult to ask what someone makes or how they set up their finances. In school they offered no financial advice or anything, and in my family it was considered dirty to talk about your finances. I'm 24 and I have more debt than I ever imagined I would have, and I never even got a college loan. These videos give me a little hope that I can change my life.

Compost and grow your own garden. You can save a lot on produce if you grow fruits and vegetables.

Some other going green choices that can save you money includes buying smaller homes. Having a smaller home will save you money in heating or cooling costs, since you have a smaller space to heat/cool.

Solar Federal Tax Credit is back at the 26% level for 2021

It's great if someone wants to go green in order to help the environment but this job should really fall on the policymakers. It's not our job as everyday people to save the environment and the only way the environment can really be saved is through drastic changes in the way we run our society brought about by policy makers.

Honestly Love your videos! I always to come to your videos whenever I have questions about finances! Thanks so much!! Keep up the GREAT WORK!!!

This is crazy! I was just watching JerryRig Everything's DIY solar panel video a minute ago.

I promise myself that once I save 100,000 PHP (2000 USD) I will buy myself a bike. Last week I reached my goal and now I am looking at models and types of bikes. This video cemented my belief that riding my bike instead of public transportation will save me money, especially on short commutes

"Run the numbers" always provides useful information. Thanks!

I love how you turned marketing into actual useful info. Good job

Good plan, I'll talk with my spouse. Hope to get green light

Thanks for the video 2 cents! I was surprised by how significant switching to LEDs can be! I would love to see a "part 2" to this video with even more eco-friendly money-saving thoughts!

Bidet saved a chunk when it came to toilet paper, especially when the hoarding started during the beginning of the pandemic. It may increase the water bill, but not by a lot. The heated seat version is an added benefit

@0:58 so instead of have a good rail system which can carry tons of cargo with low amount of fuel. We have have thousands of loris each with a fraction of the cargo with slightly less gas. Then * by a few thousands. Great job guys!

Really wish you wouldn't lump "Organic" farming in with other green activities. Buying organic is largely more damaging to the environment, takes up more land, and produces more waste than other conventional farming technics. It still uses pesticides and fertilizers which can be just as damaging to the neighboring environment and for the most part is just a marketing ploy.

Thank you for not only showing the money side of things but also the environmental impact and our responsibility we have to saving it, you guys rock.

I replaced every bulb in my house (about 35 bulbs) with LED bulbs for about $40 total. I used a combination of sales, rebates, etc. It lowered my electric bill by about $20 a month.

This channel is so fascinating to me. Love it!

I never would have expected that PBS would have some of the best content on the internet. There isn't a bad PBS show on YT. Very grateful.

I have to question some of these numbers. I've never seen an incandescent bulb that expensive, nor an LED bulb that cheap. The assumption of having 40 bulbs that are on for 5 hours a day each is also pretty extreme. It's far more likely that there are 40 bulbs, but that you only have a couple on at a time, not all 40. Making the more likely break-even period on the order of years, not months. A much better thing if you wanted to save both money and the environment would be to turn off some of those bulbs. Having that many lights on is pretty much inescusable. For electric vehicles, the maintenance thing is way overblown. sure, no oil changes are needed, but most of what is needed is WAY more expensive than on an internal combustion engine car. 7 year old leafs are starting to need $15000 batteries. You could go with a vehicle that has better battery longevity, like say Tesla, but then your maintenance costs just skyrocket. My Model S is hands down by far the single most expensive vehicle to maintain that I've ever owned ($2000 windshield, $1400 parking brake calliper, $3000 for a suspension component (that's under recall in china, but not here!)) I don't know what jurisdiction they're talking for Solar, but 5kw array saving $100/mo is highly unreasonable. With ideal placement it would generate maybe 850kwh/month, which would be about $100 at the $0.13 quoted earlier, but that would require both ideal placement which is highly unlikely, and that either you consume all that electricity locally (which means you use a lot of daytime electricity, unlikley), or more likely, that your provider is willing to pay you the full $0.13 for it in a full net-metering arrangement. Around here I pay $0.13 for my electricity, but I we have bi-directional metering, not net-metering, so I can only get $0.04 back for electricity sold to the grid. So even with ideal placement (which is unlikely in the real world) I'm only talking about $34/month in savings for a 30 year payback. That same money in a savings account would earn me 2/3 of that much, and properly invested would earn me more than the electricity savings, not to mention that these systems generally have a quoteed lifespan of less than that 30 years. Again, a much better way to save both money, and the environment, would be to turn off some of those 40 lightbulbs. And then we don't even touch on "greenwashing" by companies who often tout things that are actually not at all green as being so. Also, organic farming which is advocated for in this video is an environmental nightmare. it requires vastly more land, which usually means destruction of forests, just to feed the same number of people. If you care about the environment, organics are the last thing you should advocate for.

One of my favorite videos! Thank you so much for this!!!

Love your content!

You didn't account heating cost in the shower heads saving. Heating costs a lot of energy..

Commenting for the algorithm, you should too!

Thank you again for a very high quality content!

I just love when you guys say "Run the numbers" together 😁

BY FAR, BEST VIDEO THIS YEAR. Thank you. Two Cents!!! 💚💚💚

It's important to remember that manufacturing electric cars and their batteries create tons of emissions, too. Better to not own a car or at the very least, exclusively buy used

The numbers were very informative thank you.

Love your video guys

One thing to remember especially with the low flow shower heads and low flow toilets is that with showers people tend to then take longer showers and with toilets flush them twice or more vs once which can end up using a considerable amount of more water

the bike analogy hopefully your work has a shower lol

One useful rule of thumb is that 1 watt running a full year costs $1 (for the average US electricity rate). So if I use a 75W light bulb for 6 hours a day (25% of the time) and I replace it with a 11W LED, then I'll save 64W for 6 hours a day. The equivalent savings* over a 24 hour period is 16W, so I'll save $16 every year for replacing that light bulb. There is almost no better investment than switching light bulbs to LEDs. *64W over 1/4 of the hours in a day is the same as saving 16W all the time.

Thank you very much for this video over this very important topic

Sam could own a solar system: First she needs a house. So thats pretty much it if you want to do it in a big city. All these tips are nice and well, but it shows one big thing: If you have little money to begin with, you can not afford "investing" in larger purches.

*Rich people plays the money game to win.* *Poor people plays the money to not lose.* *The goal of the truly rich people is to have massive wealth and the poor sees a surplus as an opportunity for consumption instead of investing it.* *change your mindset and do what the rich does,* *which is investing,* *investing and investing.*

Great video! Can't wait for more :)

My favorite couple! Thank you for all the advice!

Love the topic, and the format. And that's my two cents.

Bitcoin is the future investing in it now is the wisest thing to do now especially the current rise

I’m really happy I came across your KZfaq channel, Two Cents. ❤

My parents installed 22 solar panels 11 years ago and they, on average, get 1600 euros back per year. I bought a solar panel on a company as a bond and get a return on my investment every single year. I really like it. It was my first ever investment.

I am all for going green but a 10 year return seems very long. For the solar panel example, you are “locking” in $10,000+ for 10 years before you can break even. How are you supposed to quantify the opportunity costs of sinking in $10,000 up front?

Buying new electric cars isn't as great for the environment as using used cars all the way up. So while they are "better" than new non electric cars, they aren't as good as using those old used cars :) The cost on the environment to produce new cars (or anything really) is vast! Look it up! Awesome video, great coverage with a focus on the financial piece and impact to people.

Really appreciate you guys making this video :)

Thank you for this video!!

You guys gave me the chills at the end of this video!! Way to stick to the real point of trying to save our planet one small decision at a time. In my opinion there won't be some new technology that fixes all of our environmental woes. It will be the cumulative effect of many people, technologies, economies, communities, and governments to make a real impact.

Who runs 40 light bulbs for 5 hours a day?

Seriously love this channel so much! Always so concise and down to earth ❤️

40 light bulbs in a house? That must be a big house... Or a very, very, very well lit house.

Thank you so much for standing up for the environment ☺ You guys are great!

Hey guys! I just wanted to say that I’m in high school right now and I’m in a financial planning class. My teacher likes to show your videos to us quite often and I wanted to say how much I like your energy in your videos! I appreciate the effort that goes into each video and the excitement you bring to the sometimes boring topic of finances and investing!!! Thank you again!!❤️😀

@4:52 the car on the right is an i-Miev. It starting price was around $24k. It was move of a enclosed gold cart with matching range than an EV

A 5 KW system tops out at 6K for DIY grid tie. The only investment grade option. Except in CA where you’re restricted.

Just as I’m watching this, I’m actually getting my solar panels installed right now! 😅

30 seconds I already got a good chuckle, "It costs more but saves you money??".

This video is so so true!!!!! I'm a Vet that works in management and too often the reason to promote positive change whether it's going green, animal welfare, animal health or overall better management practices is by running the numbers with the owners to illustrate the cost of maintaining bad practices! So much so that I work more with excel than with animals now! This is definitely one of the best videos I've seen! Awesome work!

Thanks for your videos

Why is she only showering 25 days of the month, seems like she has a hygiene problem 😂

Notification Squad!

When calculating savings from upfront purchases you need to compare it with the opportunity cost not the initial purchase price. In the solar example, the opportunity cost of the initial investment is about double the original cost over the 15 year period even accounting for additional taxes, inflation, and a below average investment return (7%).

Thanks for another very informative video.

"So it costs more and saves you money?" Every investment ever: *yes*

Can you do a video on estate planning? ie trust, wills and legal commandments after and before death.

The electric car is an even better option if you consider gas costs in California. Nearly $4/gallon here.

Best episode yet. For our family of 5 we used about $200/mo in electricity for the house and car. After going through and upgrading lights, hot water heater, and sealing cracks we were able to reduce our consumption to around 1000kWh/mo. Added tesla solar plus battery for around 15k after rebates and now our electric bill is down to $50/mo. Payback period is about 7 years and it should make us $30-40k over the life of the system. Easiest investment I've ever made.

Always exciting to see a new video! I like how they just casually say "bike to work" when it would be 20 miles round trip. I mean, doable, but not exactly something most people would be able to just jump into. Maybe get an e-bike? -A bike commuter

I wonder if the carbon footprint of making a Nissan electric car exceeds the carbon footprint of driving your existing car. If that is the case then doesn’t it make “cents” to drive your existing car until you are ready for another? That way it’s easier on your wallet and better for the environment.

A used electric car has been by far our best financial move. In 2017 we bought a 2014 Ford Focus electric for about $11000. The 70 mile range served us well in the Atlanta area, most places were about 35 miles or less from us. We paid about $25/month in charging and very little maintenance was needed. Then it became our only vehicle when we moved to CT. A year and a half in we’ve yet to find charging that costs money. Other than some wiper fluid and a set of snow tires it’s cost nothing but insurance and taxes. I didn’t realize when we bought it that it would be quite so affordable.

I love y'all's videos so much - this captured my sentiment about going green as well.

I've found lots of cheap LED bulbs for $1 each. I don't know if something is wrong with them, but they have been working well for the last 6 months or more. (Wal-Mart/Sam's Club) (some are dimmable, those were a little more expensive, but much less than $5 each)

Really appreciated this episode, especially the last ~minute. I do make changes in my daily life but have recently also been looking at sustainability investing, and debating whether the principle is worth the slightly higher fees/lower returns I may endure as a result. I think the end of your video helps articulate what I’ve been feeling about doing it because it’s right, even if it costs me a bit more...

Really great video!

How I've missed you guys. Thanks for the videos.

Can you do a video on retirement annuities?