[hopespringseternal]

OK, so to sum up your link, you spent 30K + 50k + 60k = 140K for solar plus EV to save $2600 in the last 2.5 years?

[DAC21]

“OK, so to sum up your link, you spent 30K + 50k + 60k = 140K for solar plus EV to save $2600 in the last 2.5 years?”

Hopefully that is not the case, otherwise that is some major virtue signaling worthy of a DU member or a math retard.

[Tell It Right]

Not quite. Now that I’m done with my out of pocket expenses, I’m saving $550 to $800 each month from now on (depending on how many miles we drive and how much we run the home AC because of outside temps). Ten years from now, my total savings will be $140 to $150K (assuming a reasonable 3% inflation rate in the energy prices I’m avoiding). All while my budget feels like my energy costs are still back in year 2019. What I take out of my income to pay my HELOC payment plus tiny power bill today is equivalent to what I was paying for energy in year 2019 (larger power bill plus natural gas bill plus lots of gasoline).

That means the $150K I won’t spend on the Dims’ stupid energy costs will stay in my Roth IRA and keep growing tax free. It also removes from my future financial planning most of the uncertainty of future energy costs. What if the Dims make energy costs double over the next few years? Bummer, but it would impact our finances only one fifth as much (the 20% of power I buy from the grid because the other 80% of our energy comes from solar with a fixed cost of the HELOC payment). Bonus points by the fact that as my HELOC balance is paid down, the minimum payment goes down. In other words in future years it costs me less money(lower HELOC payments) to save more money (avoiding energy costs that keep going up). Then the next year it costs even less to save even more, etc. (Although I work it in my budget as though I’m still paying year 2019 energy prices, so I’ll pay extra principal on the HELOC to pay it off early).

In other words, as I plan to fully retire in a few years in my late 50’s, when I think about inflation messing up my retirement, energy costs are something I don’t lose sleep over. This is the main reason for the energy project. I’ve removed most of the Dims’ ability to use their stupid warmageddon cult to mess up my retirement.

What if the Dims require a mark of the beast style social credit score for energy? Bummer again because it would force me to upgrade my solar and backup power even more to go off grid — but at least from this point I wouldn’t be starting from scratch.