Gas prices are going up. Are you going to make any significant changes due to the price of gas? Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity wonders if any of his readers have changed their behavior due to the rising gas prices.

If you, on average, drive 12,000 miles a year (that’s benchmark mileage per car you should use when you’re looking to buy used cars to assess wear and tear) then you’ll consume about 600 gallons of fuel, if you estimate efficiently at 20 mpg. If you’re used to paying $2 and are now forced to pay $3, the difference is $600 a year, or only $50 a month. I know I haven’t changed though I understand if people do. $50 when you’re making minimum wage is over ten hours of work (taxes!) which is enough to put a damper on any budget.

A reader comments about reports that people will be changing their summer family road trips due to the high gas prices.

If you take a 1500 mile road trip in a vehicle getting just 15mpg the difference between 3 dollar gas and 2 dollar gas is 100 dollars. Are people really staying home over 100 dollars?! And this is an extreme example most people can certainly do better then 15mpg on a highway trip.

I need to start being more systematic in my investing for retirement. I know that I want to be putting money away, but what is the best way? Individual Stocks? Regular mutual funds? Index Funds? Exchange Traded Funds?

Once I make that decision I need to figure out where to do the investing. In a deep discount broker? Or stick with my current account at Schwab?

What is the best way to make sure I am sufficiently diversified? And how do I keep the investment diversified?

As I have started to read I thought that I should be keeping my thoughts posted here so that not only might my learning help someone else, but that those who have more experience might also comment and help me make the right decisions.