Better To Live By Work Than Commute In Traffic

In many of the big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Chicago, it can take a very long time to get to work, and go home everyday if you drive a car. Particularly in a city like Los Angeles or Houston, where there is no public transportation it can be your only method of transportation. Most people are much better off financially they can even rent of buy a los angeles condos , as well as mentally, and emotionally if they can save time by living close to their work.  

Let’s take a look at the facts. 

If you spend three hours going to work and coming home everyday, and you make a medium average wage of $17 an hour, then you are sacrificing $51 a day in opportunity cost by not working those extra hours and then going home close by. This can add up.  If you work 22 days a week, that equals, $1100 a month of earnings lost, enough to cover half your rent in most of these neighborhoods (besides New York
– although your wages should be higher to cover more rent) If you commute to work for twenty years spending three hours on the road, you will sacrifice $264,000 in potential work income, money that could have been spent buying a decent condo in many of these cities.

The three hours of commuting means that you are also spending money on gas. Driving into the city and back can cost $10 dollars or more per day.  That means that if you are commuting, you are spending another $220 a month, adding to your losses. If you add this cost on top of your opportunity cost lost from not working those extra hours, then you are sacrificing at least $1320 per month.  With the type of money that people are sacrificing by commuting, they could easily buy a condo or loft in these city areas, which would probably prove to be a good investment, because “in city properties” tend to appreciate in value, as well as provide a fun place to live.

If they choose not work those extra three hours a day then they can improve their standard of living as well as save money on gas.  For example if it takes, 30 minutes, to walk to work and back, that can will save them two and half hours a day. That’s an extra 55 hours of leisure time each month.  This adds up to 660 hours of leisure time per year. Imagine how much a person can do if they had a extra 55 hours of free time per month. They could get more sleep, watch a movie, or just enjoy what the city has to offer.  unless you have to commute for various reasons, such as you want you kids to be in a certain school system, you may want to look into buying in the city because you’ll save a lot of money and time.