How to set Goals

Welcome.

You must set Goals

Without Goals, your chances of success are infinitesimal

That's harsh, I know.  But this is Advancing to Greater and we're not here to make you feel better, we're sharing the very best information that has been collected, filtered, and distilled down through a decade and a half of daily reading on principles of success.

Without goals, how are you going to know if you've succeeded?

Said another way, how can you hit the target if you don't know where it is?  What it is?
In which direction it is?

There is a ton of research that does, and ongoing research that certainly will, show that those who set goals are much more likely to achieve them.  There is also research that shows that those who are high achievers (who've already "made it") are people who set written goals for themselves and refer to them often.

So, how do you put yourself into this category of those more likely to achieve?

Simple, 

get out some paper...

goals that aren't written down aren't goals, 

With the blank piece of paper out, I find that it is wise to jot down some notes about the goal or goals that I'm about to write out.

Goals should be:

• They should be Specific and they should matter to you
• They should be Measurable - how will you know if you're making progress of if you've achieved your goal
• They should be Attainable or Realistic - not so huge that they seem impossible.
• They should be Relevant or Rewarding to you.
• They should be Time-bound or Trackable.

People often use this "SMART" mnemonic to help them think about their goals, but there are few other notes to keep in mind before you write out your goal in its best form...

It is important to use positive wording - for example, if you were making a goal about your healthy food choices, you should avoid saying "Don't eat junk food."  Instead, you'd want to word it "Make healthy food choices" or "when I'm hungry, I will eat foods that are in accord with my diet plan."

Words like "don't" and "never" and "no" and "not" have their place, yes, but they set a negative, limiting tone.  I find that with careful wording, you can use positive word choices that set a more uplifting, agreeable, hopeful tone in your goals.

Goals should be few, I have found.  

Ben Franklin identified all the things about himself that he wanted to improve upon and set about tracking them all, but he found he made no progress.  

He did figure out though, that when he limited his focus to a few things that he really wanted to change - he was able to do accomplish his goals, set new habits, and then move on to the next set of things he wanted to improve about himself.
Winners Focus, Losers Spray

Goals need to be reviewed frequently.  Once you've written them out, set out a schedule for tracking your progress and reviewing your goals, updating and changing them as necessary.

Now, it is time to start writing your first draft of your first goal - this is going to take some time and some re-writing, but it is not hard.  Let's begin.

One goal per page.

The first line of your goal is going to be your positively-worded "TO" statement.  For example:

• To reduce my bodyfat percentage from 25% to 23%

This statement is specific, measureable, attainable/realistic, relevant/rewarding and positively worded.


Next, we add the time-bound/tracking to it on the next line by writing when we want to achieve it, starting with the word "By"

• By July 15, 2017.

Next, the best thing that we can do is map out how we plan to make this goal happen, line by line, starting with the phrase "I will accomplish this by"

• Exercising 5 times per week where I either elevate my pulse into the "fat burn zone" as indicated by my FitBit and keep it elevated there for 45 minutes, or by accomplishing one High Intensity Interval Training workout as led by Lisa Marie from Bodyrock.tv 
• When I shop for groceries, I will buy only healthy foods to stock my refrigerator and pantry.
• When I am hungry, I will eat only those foods which are specifically allowed by the diet plan I have chosen to follow while I accomplish this goal,  "Eat to Live" diet from the book, Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
• Logging my weight and bodyfat percentage into my FitBit app every four days, starting today, May 16, 2017.

Remember that this is your first draft - you can add a bunch of items to your plan of how you will accomplish your goal.  You can also revise this later as you work on other parts of this goal, or after you have been working on actually accomplishing your goal - maybe you notice that you forgot something and need to edit your goal.  That's cool.

The next step is confronting the challenges that you will face and overcome as you achieve this goal.  We put these expected challenges into our written goal so that we think about them and plan for them now, before we have to "make a decision on the fly" which might prove unnecessarily challenging.

Start by writing out "Challenges I expect to face and how I will overcome them are:"

• Unexpected hunger or cravings while I'm at work where the only options are unhealthy snacks in the vending machine in the hall.
• I will overcome this challenge by bringing into work a couple different healthy snack options which I will keep in my drawer so that I do not have to think about the vending machine in the hall.
• Tiredness when I get done with a long day at work and don't feel like leaving my house after I've just gotten home from a tiring day at work and I would rather not go to the gym.
• I will overcome this challenge by waking up earlier so that I go to the gym first thing in the morning, and then going to work after that.  Or:
• I will pack my gym bag the night before and put it in my car, so that I have everything I need with me at work.  I will then drive straight from work to my gym so that I get my workout in!

These are just examples, and you can write out as many challenges and solutions as you can foresee.  Keep going until it feels "right."  Then consider revising your first draft of your first goal which you have done in the best way possible.  There are often some wording changes or spelling mistakes that you will catch and choose to correct.  Making your goal more "perfect" will make you prouder of it, and therefore, in my experience, you will work harder to achieve it.

That's it.  You've done it.

You've written out your first goal in the best way possible.  You are advancing to greater!

The next step is where the rubber meets the road though - now you must have the self-discipline to put your goal into action and actually start working on it, start working to achieve it!

Perseverance is the final element.  It is what will separate the achievers from the quitters.  Perseverance is the single most important element.  Get after it.

You set a good goal, and you created a great plan to achieve it.  

Now, stop thinking about the goal and work the plan!

Very Advanced Investing - Done For You

Welcome.

So, you want someone else to manage your investments...

That's fine, it is not for everyone.

Assuming you don't have access to the kinds of money where you need to know about Hedge Funds that outperform....here's how to get great investment performance done for you.

Cambria Asset Management provides it.  And its really good.  Check it out here!
0% Management fee.
No Commission fees.
No rebalancing fees.
Plus, they use the Betterment technology to execute it beautifully for you!

Betterment is the only other Do It For Me (DIFM) investment manager that I've ever recommended to my friends and family.  I wrote about them in this blog post back in March of 2016.

Now, Cambria and Betterment are working together and it is going to light the industry on fire.

Cambria is a fast-rising star in the investment management world.  So is Betterment.  Together they are even better.

There isn't more to say about this.
To get better performance from someone who does it all for you, you're going to have to have a lot of money to start with and you're going to have to pay them a lot of money every year.

...perhaps I'll write a post about that in the future...


If however, you don't mind a few minutes of simple re-balancing every month or so, you can save yourself some money by using Alpha Dogs.  It's the best.

Very Advanced Investing - Risk Parity

Welcome.

Risk Parity - removing unnecessary risk

Ray Dalio is one of the most famous and important men in the world of finance, and perhaps, in the whole world itself, full stop.  Most people have never heard of him.  That's kind of how he likes it (though he has done many more interviews and appearances in the recent past than ever before).

Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates. 

It became the largest hedge fund in the world.

Their core investing philosophy is based around the idea of controlling risk by carefully divvying it up and expressing that investment thesis very carefully and broadly through almost all assets in almost all markets.

In a simple image - it looks like this:

A more detailed image that starts to hint at the hidden complexities in the strategy is:

I highly suggest reading as much as you can, directly from them.  They write well, and it won't take you too long to read it all.

Here is their main page.

Here is their main Risk Parity page.

The beauty of their main idea is - 

since we cannot know what the market is going to do in the future, 

let's figure out how to build a portfolio that will do well no matter what happens.  

By carefully crafting a portfolio that understands that there can only be four things happening (Growth either rising or falling and Inflation either rising or falling) and carefully selecting what goes into that portfolio so that what you own what will be going up no matter which of those four things is prevailing.

What they've found and provided for their very happy clients is that you can be properly compensated for taking appropriate risks in a smart way over time, without knowing, or even trying to guess, what is going to happen in the future.

Mr. Dalio started this as an exercise to create a safe, smart portfolio for his family.  

What could they put their money into if there wasn't an investing genius, like him, around to look out for it?  

He called his creation All Weather.  

It was a portfolio that would survive, and even thrive, through any market "weather."

In an interview with Tony Robbins, for the book Money: Master the Game,

Ray was coaxed into giving up what a "regular person's" risk parity portfolio might look like - 

without the daily rebalancing; 

without the careful asset selection; 

without the endless advanced mathematical modeling; 

and importantly, without the financial leverage that Bridgewater employs for its clients.  

Here is what Ray Dalio gave up for Tony Robbins to share with the world:

Gold 7.5%

Commodities 7.5%

Stocks 30%

Long Term US Bonds 40%

Intermediate Term US Bonds 15%

This is quite a good portfolio and it is one that an average investor could manage for themselves forever, rebalancing it on a regular basis, in a tax-efficient way.  Doing so would provide the average investor with high confidence of achieving 4 to 5% above the risk free rate of return (The risk free rate of return is, basically, what you'd earn if you hid your money in short term US Treasury Bonds).

Bridgewater does a bit better, themselves, by being so much more sophisticated with the implementation of the strategy and by using leverage to increase their returns.

Here's where I'm going to provide you with the real valuable nugget:

You can do even better and for a 0% management fee!  (If you use Vanguard.)

Check out the safety and security of the Alpha Dogs strategy offered by RB Research and manage it for yourself in a Vanguard account.  It's that simple.  

Alpha Dogs offers the same kind of sophisticated theoretical mathematical modeling going on in the background, but without you having to do the math, without you having to figure out how to do the rebalancing.  It is all done for you, you just have to choose to follow the information that is presented to you.  I think you'll find it extremely valuable!

If all that is still too much for you, I will lay out a way to get this all done for you, so you don't have to lift a finger, in my next blog post, which is coming soon!

Ray Dalio wrote a book in which he laid out his principles for success.  It is a hugely valuable book and one that I re-read frequently!  I highly recommend it.

RB Research

Welcome.

The holy grail of investing has been created.

There is now a way for you to enjoy the same investing information that I use and which I've shared with my friends and family.

It is called AlphaDogs and it is hosted at RB Research.info
AlphaDogs backtesting has shown that it would have produced three-times the return of the S&P 500 since January 1, 2000!

Basically, this is a way to invest in super low-cost ETFs through Vanguard but we give you the information you need to know what to buy and how much to invest in each position.
The result of that information over time is priceless:

• higher returns
• lower risk 
• less volatility
• avoiding catastrophic losses
• and hugely increased confidence in your portfolio.  

All for the cost of a basic Netflix subscription!  That's an amazing deal.  Check out RB Research.
Here's their Facebook page.

Free Cars Forever

Welcome.

Imagine: You don't owe a dime for your car.

Follow this plan and you never will.

Here at Advancing to Greater we focus on providing the insights that will allow the curious internet wanderer to find nuggets of wisdom.  This one may be among the finest.

70% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, according to a recent nationwide survey.

This forces people to borrow for their cars.  Half of all car sales are financed at the dealer.  

The average car payment is now $500 per month!  The average loan is over $26,000!

This is still too much for many people, so the lenders have to extend the loan term in order to be able to afford the monthly payments.  

The average car loan was for 69 months in 2016!

Now one-third of loans are for 73-84 months.  That means those borrowers are paying for a long time on a rapidly depreciating asset and they'll be underwater on their car loan until year 6 or 7!

That's crazy.

Here's how to do this right.

Let's say you want a new Toyota Corolla with all the goodies.  It's a great car, reliable, and fun, but not too fancy.  Those go for about $24,000 now.  That's a $400 per month car payment.

A basic 2005 Toyota Corolla in good condition in my area goes for about $2,300 now.  So, instead of going into debt to buy a car, you save up and buy that for cash.  Then, you take the monthly car payment that you would have had with the new car and you set it aside in your savings account that you have for your next car.  In ten months, you take that $4,000 you have saved up, you sell your 2005 Corolla and get back probably every penny of your $2,300 that you paid for it, add that to your $4,000 and you take your $6,300 shopping and you buy a much nicer, newer Toyota Corolla.

You keep paying yourself, and not the bank, that $400 per month payment that you were ready to sign up for, and in another ten months, you sell your $6,300 car for about $6,000 and you add to that your $4,000 in savings and you go buy a much newer, nicer $10,000 Corolla.

In just twenty months you have majorly upgraded your ride - and you've done it while never owing the bank a penny.

You keep doing this until you have as nice and as new a Corolla as you want - or whatever other car you want!

Once you have that car, you keep doing this, keep paying yourself a car payment - heck, go crazy and start setting that money aside in an investment account, earning the market's rate of return and in 10 years, you'll have over $68,000 at 7% per year, average!

If you get 10% per year, average, you'll have over $79,000!

That means that you can buy a nice new car, and still have money left over earning interest for you!

If you took out $40,000 and bought yourself a new car with that and you left $28,000 in the account and you kept contributing to it at the same rate, you'd have about $68,000 in the account again in 5 years!  

If you wait a few more years, you have over $120,000!  

At that point, you can have new cars, essentially for free, because the gains alone will be paying for your next car each time!  Free cars forever!

Then you can start using that extra cash for your retirement - because your car purchases are paid for, forever, by your patience and smarts.

Here's a tool that you can use to play around with these numbers yourselves.  The power of compounding is incredible!

Here's Dave Ramsey's version of this idea.

**Advancing to Greater Pro Tip: 

Never buy a new car.  Always buy used.  They can be nearly new, but they cannot be new.  This will save you so much in the long run!  Cars depreciate at a spectacular rate!

How to set up your life if you're just starting out, or just starting over.

Welcome.

So you're starting your life on your own, now....

It's time to make some decisions so that these years are among the best years of your life.  There are some things that you can make sure you have, and some things you need to make sure you avoid, in order to have the best possible experience, the least stress, and the most probability of achieving your goals.

The main thing to keep in mind is:

Add Assets.  Limit Liabilities.

Avoid debt like the plague.  

Not only will whatever you buy with debt cost you more: it will cost you more for longer.  It is far better to save up and go without until you can afford to pay for it all at once.  This is called the "One Payment Plan" and it rocks!

Add Assets by saving and investing.  Every little bit that you save and invest now will pay you dividends from that time forward, and that compounding growth is the magic road to wealth.  Save Save Save.  Invest. Invest. Invest.

The other thing to keep in mind is:

Keep your expenses low!  

Your savings rate determines the length of time that you have to work to save for retirement.

The more you can save, the sooner your retirement will come.  This was already discussed some here.

Since you are starting out, you can consciously choose low-cost, low-expense options and live your life that way - intentionally, putting you far, far ahead of everybody who realizes too late that they're spending too much and has to try to figure out how to reign in an out of control spending habit and expensive lifestyle choices.

If you can balance those two things to keep in mind, with your desires for the things that you want in life, you can have the best of both worlds.  It just takes some up front planning and some conscious decision-making about the inherent trade-offs of each decision.

Practical steps to take:

*Max out all retirement savings options you have.  

If you work for a private company, max out the 401(K).  See if they have a program to get employees discounted stock, or any other assets.

If you work for a government, in addition to your pension there is likely a 457(B) plan that is sometimes called Deferred Compensation "Deferred Comp" - yup, max it out.

If you have neither of those options, open yourself a Roth IRA and max out your contributions to that.

Those options will not be enough.  The 401(K) was only created to supplement already-existing company pensions, back when it was created.  You cannot save enough in a 401(K) or an IRA to have enough for retirement.  There just won't be enough money in there when you get around to needing it.

*So, you will need to open other investment accounts on your own.  

I am currently recommending RB Research's information on how to use Vanguard, if you want to do it yourself.  

Or Cambria Asset Management, if you want an excellent personal investment manager - they have some really incredibly intelligently constructed funds that you can own through another broker too, if you like.  Check them out here.

*Have an Emergency Fund.

This cash savings account will be there to help you out when some large, unforeseeable expense comes along.  

Without an Emergency Fund, you'd be in a position where you would otherwise have to sign up for debt.  And since we're advancing to greater, that's not something that is even an option.

You can start small with this, but you quickly want to grow this to the point where it can sustain you through any major personal financial disaster.
Got in a terrible car wreck?  Emergency Fund to the rescue.
Can't work for some reason?  Emergency Fund is there.
Furnace died?  Emergency Fund got you.


*Last - but not least - be careful about your love life and serious relationships.
It is easy to spend waaaay too much in this area of your life, especially if you get serious, and most especially if you get married.
Kids too, are major expenses.  And you're on the hook for the cost of rearing them for 18-22 years!
Be sure.

If you cannot be sure enough, protect yourself by finding out about the wonderful world of Trusts.
Trusts are legal entities which own your assets, in the way you want them owned, and they must be used in the manner in which you specify.  Find a great estate planning attorney to explain their benefits to you and help you set one up.

FREE Gasoline Forever

Welcome.

I know what you're thinking...

"There must be a catch."

You'll see.  =)

My family bought almost exactly $1,000 of gasoline last year.
It seems odd that it came so near to that big round number.  Anyway,

Exxon will reimburse us a little bit more than that entire amount.  

Here's how you can get in on the same program.

First, you need to know how much you spent on gas last year.
Your online banking can be a real help with this!

Second, you need to know what the dividend currently is on XOM.  You look that up on Yahoo Finance or Google Finance or anything like that.

On November 13, 2020 XOM's annual dividend is $3.48 per share.

$1,000 divided by $3.48 = 287.35  I'd round that up to 288 shares.

For a total outlay of 288 times the current price of XOM ($35.85 on 11/13/2020) you'd have all your gasoline costs reimbursed every year.  288 x $35.85 = $10,324 

A total investment in XOM of $10,324 reimburses your total expenses for gasoline each year.

If you want to buy a few more shares, go ahead; that way you know you're going to be over-reimbursed for you gasoline purchases.



It's kinda fun to fill up and know that Exxon is gonna pay you back for what you're spending right then.  It feels like you're getting away with something.

You can do this with anything:

Electricity (use ticker D), Groceries (ticker KR), Water (YORW), etc.

Now you know how you can get reimbursed for the costs associated with just living your life!

Design your Life, Improve your Lifestyle

Welcome.

Intentionally think about and design your life to improve your lifestyle

Most people will find this post after they have already made important life decisions.

You already have a place to live.

You already have a job.

You already have transportation.

And once decisions like those are made, they seem to gain a certain amount of inertia.  

They seem to be hard to change.

If you've found this after you have already made those decisions, or if they've been made for you:
I understand.

But you will still find value here.  

Even moreso if you manage to read this before you make those decisions!

What is "lifestyle"?

The way in which a person lives.

If you could design your lifestyle, what would you choose?

A life with extra money?

Freedom to choose how you spend your time?

Good relationships?

The way your live your life is determined by these factors.

The size of your house is the #1 predictor of your expenses.

If you want to have a life that costs you a ton of money, buy a big house.

Or rent a big apartment.

Go ahead.  

You know how impressive it looks to have a big place.

But who are you trying to impress?

Do they even care?

Do they think about your big house all the time?

A big house costs a lot to keep.

It costs a lot to insure.

It costs a lot to heat and cool because there is so much air inside to "condition."

That's a lot of electricity, natural gas, and water.

Big houses also require more landscaping, more maintenance, and more security.  

Large houses also create a much stronger-than-normal psychological pressure to

Keep Up with the Joneses.

And that sickness spreads like a cancer into other areas of your life.

It makes you want to have nicer cars, which are expensive to buy, maintain, and insure.

It makes you feel like you have to have a boat, like your expensive neighbors do.

It makes you feel like you have to get the jet-skis too!  The list just goes on and on.

All those expensive things require that you earn more in order to have them.  That means you have no choice but to work harder, to take that job you don't want, to give up on your passion because it doesn't pay enough, to take the promotion or transfer that you don't want, or just to work more hours - all just because you need the money!
By signing up for all those expensive things, it requires that you give up your own agency - your own free choice! - to determine anything else about how you live your life; your lifestyle.

Do not yoke yourself with the burden of expenses that are not deeply important to your living the lifestyle you desire!

Killer Commute!

For Richer or Poorer....It's your choice.

Plan to live close to work.
That will reduce or possibly even eliminate the need for a car and its contingent expenses.
Fuel, wear and tear, routine maintenance, insurance, etc.  All of these costs are directly impacted by the length of your commute!  Not to mention the psychological and possibly medical harm caused by the stress of commuting in heavy traffic and sitting for lengthy periods of time.

If you can walk to work, that's wonderful!

If you live too far to walk, commute by bike!
If you're afraid of being too slow or too sweaty, strap an electric motor on your bike!

If you cannot commute by bike, carpool/rideshare or take mass transit!

The best way to do this is to find a place to live after you've found the job that you want!
That way, you have the job you want, and you can project how much income you might earn from it.
Knowing that amount of income will help you select a place to live that fits your budget and which is really, really close to your work.

If possible, live East of work so any traffic that you must deal with is minimized and the sun is not in your eyes when you are commuting.  (Assuming that you have chosen your job during "normal" hours.)

Your commute and your mode of transportation have a direct impact on how much you spend and how much time you spend not doing something else that you would rather do....
Do you love to sleep in?!  Would you rather do that instead of getting up early in order to commute?
Would you rather be spending that time with friends or family?

It is your choice.
You just have to choose, intentionally, to configure your life to support your desired lifestyle.

Hobbies, Diet, and Exercise

Each of these things should bring you pleasure and they shouldn't be too expensive.

Everyone should have a hobby.  But be mindful about how much money and space you dedicate to it.

Perhaps you can find a way to incorporate your hobby into your work?  And keep the equipment for your hobby there?  That frees up a perceived "need" for space for your hobby equipment that puts pressure on you to choose a bigger, more expensive residence.  Just be intentional about this area of your life so that it lives in concert with the other areas of your lifestyle design plan.


Your dietary and exercise choices will have a huge impact on your life.  Invest a little time in planning them out so that you can have what you want with ease.
A lot of very high achievers swear by eating the same breakfast everyday.
Some even have the same lunch every day.  This frees them up from having to spend mental energy and willpower on small decisions which they can largely automate - or at least have it feel like it is automated.
Plan your meals ahead and cook/prep ahead of time.  This will save you a lot of energy and time, but especially it will save you money.  Too many people pay extra for the convenience of going out to eat too often.  Going out to eat should be a treat, not your default option.
I have a package of Bel-Vita bars for breakfast with home-brewed coffee.  (Sometimes I have two packs of Bel-Vita bars.)


Similarly, your exercise choices can be a drag on your lifestyle or a synergistic support.
Many people buy large, expensive, heavy exercise equipment.
It seems like the "normal" thing to do.

Chances are though, that if you live close to work, you also live close to a gym.  If you do, you can pay the gym a small fee on a monthly basis and have access to a much broader array of equipment than you would if you warehoused all that stuff yourself, at your own residence.
If there isn't a "real" gym nearby, there is probably someone with a pretty nice one in a garage near you.  And they're likely hoping that someone like you would come along and offer them some money to use their stuff and their space.  You might be their first customer as they build their small business!

If there is no acceptable gym or yoga studio or otherexerrciseboxthingthatyouliketodoforexercise that is within walking distance, then you can workout at home.  Craigslist can be your friend as you find cheap ways to get the equipment you need.
It is never okay to drive to the place you exercise.
It would be better to go for a run or a walk around your neighborhood and then turn a park or playground into a gym.

You know what else is expensive?

Kids.  Kids are expensive.

They're also optional.  Children also divide a family's wealth as it is passed down.

How many will you have?  One?  Two? Three?  Four?  None?  It is up to you.  Be intentional with your family planning.  It will have a direct impact on how big a home you think you need and how much income you feel that you need to earn.

But kids are really cute, too.  Totally worth it.

Pets too, are expensive.  And optional.  They cost a surprising amount to keep and their medical expenses can be a lot.  They also create a demand for space and may lead you to choose one (usually more expensive) residence over the other because of them.  

Pets also require planning and they limit your spontaneity and travel.  You have to plan for their care.

It's gonna be okay.

Ending up with the lifestyle you want is all about the decisions you make.
If you don't have the lifestyle that you want, start making reasonable changes to get it.

You do not have to change everything.  And you don't have to do it all at once.

Start looking for a new place to live that is closer to your work.
Maybe you want to start looking for a less expensive mode of transportation.
If you want to go crazy, look for someone to buy all your large, heavy, expensive exercise equipment and get a gym membership.  Decide if you can you rent the equipment you need for your hobby instead of buying it and storing it yourself.

It really all comes down to understanding that every decision you make has an impact on your lifestyle forever (or until you consciously re-decide to do something else).
Every dollar you earn gets assigned a job, 

either on purpose (through intentional lifestyle design),

or by default.  

The more you spend on your shelter, transportation, hobbies, eating out, etc, the less you have to save and invest or to spend on the things that make you happiest at a deep level.
Conversely, if you are saving and investing every dollar, you are trading for the future utility of that dollar and not being able to enjoy some thing or experience that you could be using it for, now, at the present time.
Simply realize that every dollar is an inherent tradeoff.
Use that as a thought to guide your design of your balance of saving, investing, spending.

Realize too, that every minute is irretrievable, and that perhaps you don't want to spend too many of those minutes commuting.