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Comment by edward | Hacker News Reader

I think these articles about extreme commutes are interesting. I recommend you read what Mr. Money Mustache has to say on the subject.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-c...

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Eh. It's reasonable to point out that even a < 1 hr. car commute can be a bigger money leak than a lot of people appreciate. And I also believe that anyone commuting 2 hours each way daily needs to give serious thought to alternatives; it doesn't seem sustainable.

That said, selling and buying houses (or changing jobs) on an ongoing basis so you're right next to your job doesn't seem like a great strategy either. And likely not a plausible one, at least outside of a city, if you have a partner who also goes into an office.

When choosing between jobs I try to calculate the true hourly wage I'd receive. I include transportation costs, travel time, expected unpaid overtime etc and pick not the highest salary but the highest hourly rate all things considered.

Unfortunately, in most cases the base salary is the only part of compensation that is 'guaranteed'. Overtime requirements could change after a few months, a job with a longer commute might allow work from home, etc. Your 'true rate' is an interesting piece of information to consider during job search, but I do not think it should have this much weight.

Do you calculate life lost as well? I'm being serious. There is a MASSIVE difference between a five minute commute, and an hour commute when you add it up over a lifetime. That's a stupid amount of your life wasted doing nothing.

I do, a job with an hour one way commute will have ten hours weekly of additional work time as opposed to 50 minutes for the 5 minute example. Thus if salaried at the same rate the 5 minute commute is the better deal (and that's before calculation of travel costs)

I was referring to literal life time lost. If you're salaried better with a 3 hour commute, it's still not worth it in my opinion. There is a definite maximum commute time, no matter the price.

The entire article is pretty interesting, but here's the punchline:

> So each mile you live from work steals $795 per year from you in commuting costs.

> $795 per year will pay the interest on $15,900 of house borrowed at a 5% interest rate.

But note that the vast bulk of that is an imputed value of his time which, unless you're turning down work you can't do because you're in a car commuting, isn't something you can pay the bank with.

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