Time to Carpool (or at least start thinking about it!)

Last week we explored ways to save money on skyrocketing gas costs.  Let's take a closer look at carpooling options. The best approach is to find others at work who live in your vicinity.  But if this doesn't pan out, how about trying to connect with people online?

There are many carpooling websites but most of them are not worthwhile for the Conejo Valley.  These include:  www.NuRide.com (not available yet in our area), www.ridecheck.com (mostly for 1-time rides, not regular carpools), www.carpoolworld.com (just didn't seem very user friendly nor helpful), www.ridesearch.com (was useless to me) and www.ridester.com (mostly 1-time rides).  And ride-sharing social network sites www.zimride.com and www.goloco.org were too much effort to figure out.  I prefer something immediately USEFUL!

The one website that seemed to have a decent selection of potential carpoolers in the Conejo Valley area was www.eRideshare.com.  The site is geared towards daily commuters and did not take long to figure out.  I quickly found 50 possible carpools originating within a 10 mile radius of Thousand Oaks.  Type in your zip code and see what is available. You still must register (for free) to contact other users.  This one is worth checking out.

You can also try the Ventura County craigslist rideshare link (http://ventura.craigslist.org/rid/).  This turned up a few possibilities but is mostly geared towards 1-time rideshares.

I had high hopes for www.ridematch.info as it is sponsored by various local transportation authorities.  They make you register before searching for carpools which I did not like.  After that somewhat painful process I found very few options.  The site has potential but was not user friendly.  I would not recommend it.

Another alternative is the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train, which runs from San Luis Obispo to San Diego.  With local stations in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Moorpark and Simi, you can take the train to Glendale, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and other destinations.  Amtrak can be pricey for a 1-time commute (currently $32 round-trip Moorpark/Los Angeles) but if you buy a monthly pass ($302) and use it all the time you can really save a lot of money and wear and tear (both you and your car).  Visit www.AmtrakCalifornia.com for more information.

So good luck and let me know if you have other carpooling ideas!

Life Insurance for Babies? Worthwhile?

It has been 4 1/2 years since this posting, so we have updated our analysis as of January 2013.

So I'm sitting here in my family room with my young boys, TV blaring in the background.  A commercial for Gerber Life Insurance, the "Grow-Up" plan, appears on the screen.  What the?  Why would I want to spend money on life insurance for a baby??  Does this make any sense to consider?

The plan is summarized at www.gerberlife.com.  It is a whole life policy with coverage ranging from $5K to $35K.  You can buy the policy for a kid (or grandkid) anytime between the age of 14 days and 12 years. At age 21 the policy automatically doubles in value as long as the premiums are paid.  At age 28 your kid can increase coverage by a factor of 10 at the then applicable rate.

I took a closer look at the $30K policy, with a monthly premium of $20.46.  They say that after 20 years the "cash value" of the policy equals or exceeds the premiums you paid.  That would be $4900 in year 2028.

If you took that $20.46 each month and invested in a college savings plan and it earned an average of 5% or 8%, you would have $8400 or $12K in year 2028.  To me, that makes a lot more sense than an insurance policy.

Would this Grow Up plan make sense for anyone?  The policy makes sense if your child dies, as the payoff would pretty much cover the funeral and burial costs; not much more than that.  Statistics in the U.S. indicate a death rate of 1 in 5000 children aged 1 to 14 and 1 in 1400 for teens ages 15 to 19 (the California rates are roughly 10% to 15% better than these averages). 

Seems to me that the premiums are better spent on college savings then the possibility of death at an early age.

One last argument for the policy is that it guarantees your child the ability to increase coverage by a factor of 10 at age 28.  This would only pay off for someone who otherwise is unable to get life insurance at that age.  To me, this is not worth forking out 27 years of premiums for.

Return of the Hydrox...Coming in August

Hydrox, the world's only cookie that sounds like a skin moisturizer, is returning from retirement for a brief stint sometime in late August 2008.  Hydrox was taken off the market in 1999, so this is a big deal to diehard Hydrox fans.  Visit www.HydroxCookies.com for more information.

Hydrox was launched by the Sunshine Biscuits Company in 1908 as the first creme filled chocolate sandwich cookie.  The Oreo didn't come out until 1912 but soon Nabisco's marketing and distribution power had Oreo running circles around Hydrox.  In fact, nearly half a TRILLION Oreos have been sold since they were launched, making them the top selling cookie of the 20th century.

I like an underdog, so I'm cheering the return of the Hydrox and hope that enough people catch on to them again so that Kellogg's (which bought the company that owned the Hydrox brand in 2001) keeps them on the market.  I barely remember what Hydrox tastes like but I've heard they are slightly less sweet than Oreos.

So why did they create the name Hydrox based on hydrogen and oxygen, the elements that make up water?  Beats me!  Though even more perplexing is where the name Oreo came from. Nobody seems to know the answer to that one, even Nabisco.  Though the theory that the "re" came from "cream" that was sandwiched between the two "o's" from chocolate seems almost plausible.

So let's lead the effort to bring back the Hydrox permanently.  Kellogg's, if you read this, please feel free to send me a few cases of retro Hydrox cookies later this summer and I promise to spread the Hydrox gospel!  How about an Oreo/Hydrox Taste Challenge a la Coke/Pepsi!!??  Hydrox fans, let Kellogg's know you want the Hydrox back for good!

Thousand Oaks Safest City Once Again!

The FBI issued preliminary crime statistics for 2007 today, and...(drum roll)...CONGRATULATIONS, Thousand Oaks!  We are back to the Number 1 spot on the list among the 257 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000.  Our total crime rate in 2007 was 1.668%, or 16.68 crimes per 1,000 people.  This very slightly edged out the city of Irvine, California which was at a crime rate of 1.684% (not bad at all, Irvine!).  Irvine could have beat us if we had just another 25 reported crimes last year, so that was quite close.  Amherst Town in New York was 3rd place at a crime rate of 1.742%.

CLARIFICATION:  My "Safest City" designation was based on the "total" crime rate.  News reports today have ranked Irvine as the Safest City for 4 years in a row based on having the lowest "violent" crime rate, not "total" crime rate (see below).  As it stands, T.O. ranks 2nd among California cities for lowest violent crime rate and 1st for lowest property and total crime rates.  Irvine ranks 14th in terms of property crime rates among California cities.

The FBI groups two main categories of crimes; violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, assualt) and property crimes (burglary, larceny/theft, auto theft).  Thousand Oaks reported 182 violent crimes (70% of which were assault) and 1,942 property crimes.  While it feels good to be #1, we still have room for improvement.  Our overall crime rate actually grew by 6% in 2007 vs 2006.  However, our violent crime rate dropped by 19% while property crimes grew by 8%.

At the bottom of the list was St. Louis, Missouri, Orlando, Florida and Little Rock, Arkansas, at rates of 11.93%, 10.45% and 10.35%, respectively.  What this means is that you are 7 times less likely to be the victim of a crime in Thousand Oaks than in St. Louis.  The dubious honor of highest violent crime rate belongs to Flint, Michigan.  In 2007, 24 out of every 1,000 Flint residents were the victim of a violent crime.

Simi Valley ranked as the 9th safest U.S. city at a total crime rate of 2.09% (4th safest in California, after T.O., Irvine and Glendale).  Oxnard's crime rate was 2.747%, which was a slight drop from 2006.  This earned Oxnard recognition as the 12th most crime-free large city in California out of 65 cities.  Ventura was lower on the list, at #45.

Keep up the great work, fellow Conejo Valley residents!  For more information, visit www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.