Getting people to care about the environment is no easy feat. Many people say they want to help the environment, but when it comes time to actually do something about it, they fall short of their initial ambitions. Then there are some people who truly do not care. These people often figure there’s no point in saving the environment if they won’t be alive a few decades from now.

It’s hard to motivate people to care about the environment, because they don’t typically see the consequences affect them directly. For example, if the temperature in your house increased by one or two degrees every time you drove your car to work, you’d be riding your bicycle within a week. Environmental damage doesn’t work that way, though. It takes time for the consequences to emerge, and by the time they do, it’s impossible to view yourself as the source, especially since you can’t see the big picture of all the tiny things you do that have an impact on the environment — and because everyone else’s actions play a role, as well.

But what if there was a way you could see how your choice to be or not be green is affecting you? Even better, what if you could see how your green-ness, or lack there of it, is affecting your green. This easiest way to understand the difference going green could make on your life — right now — is to evaluate the amount of money you would save. Everything you do right now that is bad for the environment is a type of consumption, which means it costs money.

Think about it, everything from driving, to watching TV, to eating, is some for of consumption, whether it’s consuming food, oil, or… more oil. If something takes a lot of energy to happen or be produced, two things can be guaranteed: it will require electricity or fuel, which means it will use up oil; and it will cost money. In fact, it’s perfectly safe to say energy equals money, because it literally does — all you have to do is look at your electric bill.

The more energy you use, the more money you are going to spend. Similarly, the more energy it takes to produce the goods and services you purchase, the more you will probably spend on them. If something requires a lot of power to do or to make, the provider is going have a great overhead expense, thus increasing the cost the consumer has to pay.

All in all, even people who don’t care about saving the environment, care about saving money. Whether you do care or you don’t, you can save your retirement fund by cutting back on the over usage of fuel, electricity, water, and services and products that largely rely on both.