wahoonc

Stop using gas. Interesting article on CNN about the average amount spent on gas as a percentage of income. That is after tax spending too!

Worst state was Mississippi at over 9% with New York being the best at 3.44%.

Yet another reason to consider car free or car light.

Aaron

poormanbiking

Gas prices are only one part of the expense, purchase price exceeds fuel costs easily.

Hobartlemagne 

Maintenance too

twentysixtwo

Consumer Reports did an analysis a few years ago and IIRC the single biggest cost of owning a vehicle was the depreciation, with insurance next. Fuel and maintenance was third.

Of course this was assuming that you purchased a new vehicle. Also I think this was before $4 gas hit us.

The best way to get vehicle ownership costs down is to not have one of course, but next best is to buy a 1 or 2 year old car and drive it until it's about 10+ years old.

You can get insurance costs down by increasing your deductible. Typically it drops dramatically going to a $1000 deductible, then diminishing returns after that.

Lamplight

I wonder if they had a way to compensate for states with higher average incomes versus only slightly more expensive fuel. For example, the cost of living here in TN is considerably lower than that of CA, but our fuel prices aren't usually that much cheaper. So it would seem that a larger portion of the average income would naturally go to fuel costs here, since most people make considerably less. Of course, the difference in income levels may not be as high as I think.

rix

Mississippi has the lowest per capita income of any state, while New York is usually near the top. New Yorkers spend less of their income on gasoline (despite having very high fuel prices and taxes) because most lower-income New Yorkers have access to decent public transportation. All the rich bigwigs are the ones who own cars. In Mississippi, rich or poor, if you want to get around you have to own a car.

gwd

Are you confusing the NY city with the state as far as mass transit goes?
Whats so special about Mississippi and Montana? I don't see why Montana should be so much worse than Wyoming and North Dakota.

rix

Upstate NY has decent mass transit too. Not on par with NYC's, but certainly better than most of the country outside of the Northwest corridor.

In general, poverty + lack of mass transit = more poor people spending more of their income on cars/maintenance/gas/registration/insurance/etc. That explains Mississippi, SC, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

My hypothesis is that despite similar population densities, Montana is mostly agricultural, with small isolated farming communities (very fossil-fuel intensive, and trucking in gasoline for the family farm is fairly costly) while Wyoming's economy has shifted to tourism and commercial mineral extraction with less emphasis on farming.

qmsdc15

Yes, the percentage of income that is spent on gas. I think differences in average income plays a bigger part in this equation than regional variations in gas prices and/or driving habits.

wahoonc

Car payments and insurance are basically fixed expenses. Gas is not. You have basically little or no control over the cost of gas. If it goes up and you are living near the edge it will be enough to push you over. Unfortunately I don't think they teach basic economics or budgeting in schools anymore, of if they do the first thing most people do is forget about it, and buy into the consumerism and the fact you owe it to yourself, so buy it, even if you can't afford it.

Aaron

JeffS

I'm sure it very closely parallels the average income levels per state, with slight variation based on land development patterns.

Roody

They still teach household finances in high school. But nowadays they mostly teach about "managing credit" rather than budgeting and actually living within your means.

gerv 

Yeah that's crazy. Everyone is trying to keep a good credit score... and no one bother to think "can I afford this?" I suppose they don't teach that in school... it went out with Latin.