Free Money Finance: What's Your Commute Time?

Check out this brutal story from the Wall Street Journal:

Most weekday mornings David Herbert, 44, is out the door by 4:15 a.m., hoping to get a jump on the 74-mile slog from his home southwest of Olympia, Wash. to downtown Seattle.

Rather than fight traffic the entire way, the information technology manager drives 45 miles to Tacoma, boards the 5:35 a.m. train for the one-hour ride to King Street Station then takes a bus for the final 20 minutes of his commute to the office.

At his desk by 7:00 a.m., Mr. Herbert works a full eight-hour day before leaving to catch the 3:15 p.m. train to Tacoma. By the time he pulls back in his driveway around 6 p.m. he'll have been in transit more than five hours ? and that's on a good day.

Ok, let's look into just how bad this is:

• 4:15 am -- Ugh. Do I need to say more? (BTW, this is the time he's out the door. Imagine what time he gets up!!!)


• Five hours of transit time per day -- At five days a week, 50 weeks per year (two weeks for vacation), that's over 52 complete days (24-hour time periods) that he spends commuting each year. Almost two months!!!


• "On a good day" -- I'm afraid to ask what it is on a bad day!


• If he gets home at 6 pm and gets up at 3:30 am (I'm guessing on wake-up time), he has 9 1/2 hours at home for sleeping, eating, family time, etc. That's not much at all...

And it appears he's not the only one doing something like this. The Journal goes on:

More than 3.2 million workers in the U.S., or about 2.4% of the nation's workforce, travel more than 90 minutes to work each way, according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (According to the Bureau, any commute over one hour is considered extreme.)

Ugh, ugh, and triple ugh.

I had a friend who had an hour-and-a-half commute one way for several years. He said he didn't really have a life but "had to" do it to provide the home/lifestyle his family wanted. The only way I'd EVER do something like that would be 1) if there was no other choice (meaning I could find no other job -- even a worse, lower-[paying job) or 2) if they paid me so much that I could do it for a couple years, cash out, and then retire. Other than that, nothing's worth giving up so much time IMO.

I currently have a very easy (leisurely) 15-minute drive (if that) to work. It's worth a lot to me. If someone offered me my exact job but it was a 45-minute drive one way, they would have to pay me tens of thousands of dollars more for me to even consider it.

In the past jobs I've held, I've never really had a long commute. Here are my one-way commute times for each job I've held (listed with the name I gave in the summary post of the jobs I've held):

• Introduction to the Real World -- 10-minute walk to work.


• Second Job a Winner and Working for a Maniac -- 20-minute drive in rush-hour traffic in semi-large city.


• Promotion, Success, and Failure -- 25-minute drive in rush-hour traffic in semi-large city.


• I Get My Dream Job -- 15-minute leisurely drive on back roads.


• The Dot Com Bubble Bursts and The Blame's on Me -- 15-minute leisurely drive on back roads.


• An Interesting Transition -- 15-minute leisurely drive on back roads.

How about you? Have you ever had a long commute? Did you like it or hate it? Would you take less pay if your commute was shorter or demand more if it was longer?

Source: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2011/09/whats-your-commute-time.html

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