Sharing is caring (and profit).
"There are some words in our vocabulary that will, for the most part, always be associated with preschoolers. "No." "Mine." "Gimme." These words are usually accompanied by a pull, a grab or a hugging motion to the chest ... Teaching a preschooler how to share something they don't want to give up can be a daunting task, but it can be done."
The above is an opening paragraph from a how-to article on teaching your preschooler to share. It seems silly to write (let alone take advice from) such a piece when this is clearly an important thing to teach one's child. So why is it that the general adult population does not share their belongings with other citizens?
First lets look at what they have to share and how much they spend keeping it.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American family's top five spending categories, as a percentage of pre-tax income, are as follows:
2. Â Transportation 17.6%
*Followed by Entertainment, Apparel and Services, and Cash Contributions. That average about 4.3% of pre-tax income, each.
That equates to a whopping 51.7% of pre-tax income going to Housing and Transportation and a total of 93.5% going to the categories above combined (there are other spending categories too). Add even a 15% income tax or some other life event (like retirement), and the average family goes into the red because of their lifestyle.
What if we lived in a world where people could share their possessions like we shared the colored pencils in preschool in order to offset our living expenses? The good news is, we do. The adoption of technologies that enable people to connect and share with others is spreading like wildfire. There are now sites filled with sharers and people willing to pay big money to access the homes, cars, and other assets they do not own themselves. Don't have any assets to share? You can share your time and expertise too.
"Is this guy some sort weirdo who wants us all to live in one big vegan co-op together?"
This may be an average American's thoughts if they have made it this far. Unfortunately, that's not the case and I encourage you to read on.  I've covered the basic stats how things currently are and the cute part about "sharing is caringand possible ". Lets get to the part of the title that matters... Profit.
Let's talk hypotheticals... everyone loves those, right?
You are a human at the youthful (but not that youthful) age of 48.8. You own 1.9 vehicles, live in a place with 2.5 people that you have a 67% chance of owning and have a household pre-tax income of $63,091 from the 1.3 wage earners in the dwelling.
You currently spend $32,618.04 on housing and transportation per year. ($21,514.03 on housing and $11,104.01 on transportation)
*Household stats based on the U.S. Department of Labor statistics from above.
What if you rented out a single room in your home for $90 per night to traveling students just five times per month? You would bring in another $5,400 dollars in pre-tax income, or what equates to an 8.5% boost in salary or a 25% decrease in housing costs.
Couple the above with renting your car ten hours per week to your neighbors who don't share the luxury at a conservative estimate of $5 per hour. This is an added $2,600 dollars in pre-tax income (a 4.1% salary boost or a 23.4% decrease in transportation costs).
With a few tweaks to one's lifestyle, they can keep an additional 12.6% of their yearly pre-tax income. No budgeting, no starving themselves, just by following the lead of pre-schoolers and sharing with others. That enables a materially better standard of life.
Sharing your home and vehicle are just the tip of the iceberg. Â There are now companies that allow people to share their bicycles, tools, professional knowledge, office space, road trips, parking spaces and even their unique skills devoted to others during free time.
*Disclosure: I work for one of them, but there are many others, a few who are even testing real-time connections between people for general tasks.)
Take advantage of these amazing technological advances and remember what we were taught in preschool. The opening quote of this post states:
"Teaching a preschooler how to share something they don't want to give up can be a daunting task, but it can be done."
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