Planet Green
DCL
Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country. In his regular column on PlanetGreen.com, Steve goes behind the scenes of the show and offers additional tips and insight on green renovation
The most interesting thing about the Griffins, from the Big Bucks for Retirement episode of Renovation Nation; was that they did a cost-benefit analysis of all the green improvements that they would implement on their house. They made a commitment to spending only $25,000 bucks that they pulled out of their 401k. The Griffins spent most of it on solar panels.
This was the right thing to do because they live on Chesapeake Bay, and they wanted to, in a larger sense, lessen their habitational impact on the bay. When it came right down to it, the way Steve Griffin convinced his wife to spend their money was that solar panels would cap the cost of their energy moving forward.
One of the scary things for someone who is going to retire is not being able to control their fixed costs. When you shift into a retirement mode, you will want to reduce your fixed costs as much as you possibly can and then control them.
So Steve Griffin did the analysis and concluded that controlling their electrical costs was a sound investment. It's smart. I like it.
