[zaphos]

This kind of thinking works out if you personally value your time at an hourly rate, and consider the whole commute time as lost and unpaid.

For example, say you value your time at ~$50/hr, and the train costs $8/day, and there are 20 work days in a month. If your daily commute takes 2.5 hrs, that's $2660/month in value to you. If your marginal income tax rate is 28%, then to actually get that amount of additional spending money you'd need to make $2660/.72 = $3695/month. This would be a 30% raise if you currently make about 12k/month (144k/yr).

[ryandrake]

Interesting way to look at it, thanks. My commute costs roughly $10/day (100 miles x $0.12 or so a mile), so that's $2400/yr to commute.

It's hard to justify assigning a dollar value to your time though, unless you'd otherwise be making that ~$50/hr. If I were not commuting for 4 hours per day, it's not like I'd be consulting for those hours, so there's no opportunity cost. Is the time I'd otherwise spend lying on the couch worth ~$50/hr? Hard to say.

[Nadya]

>Is the time I'd otherwise spend lying on the couch worth ~$50/hr? Hard to say.

Assign an hourly value to your free time. If you wanted to relax at home on a Saturday playing video games, how much money would I need to pay you to do something for me instead?

I'll work for no less than $20/hr. I'll give up my free time for no less than $100/hr.

My rates differ because, at least for me, I'm required to work to pay bills and pay to do things I enjoy doing with my free time. Since I'm required to do it and I need to be realistic with what I ask for, I charge less. My free time is time I'm not required to work - so there needs to be enough monetary incentive for me to be willing to give up my free time. Idealistically my "work rate" would match my "free time rate".

[ryandrake]

This is a way to think about free time that I've never considered before. Thank you. Curious as to how you arrived at that $100/hr figure. Is it based on any measurable aspect of your life? If I were to adopt your way of thinking, I would have a hard time putting a dollar value to my own because I have nothing but my current job to measure it against.

Would I give up another hour with my family for $100? How often would that opportunity come along? If I had the opportunity to make $100/hr whenever I wanted, I'd first quit my job and fill up that time with this new $100/hr activity, before eating into my free time. But that's a lot of money--it would be very tempting to let it eat into my free time and I'd probably just apply it to as much time as possible in order to maximize the opportunity. That's probably true for any dollar value over what I currently make.

But reality is, whether or not I would give up an hour of free time for $100 is a pointless question to ask because I'm not aware of a way to convert free hours into $100 bills. If I had the opportunity to do such a thing, I'd simply be doing it instead of what I'm currently doing.

[Nadya]

The figure is simply how much I feel is motivating enough to give up my free time. That's the minimum amount and often times it can be quite higher (see my other post). The opportunities largely don't exist and mostly because people don't want to pay that much for my time. Cash is not a priority for me and I'm not really needing of more of it. [0, tangent]

For some people it could be $5 because they need some money to buy some food to eat. For others it might be $30 to spend at the bar on Friday night. Others charge more - I know a contractor who won't settle for any less than $10,000 for 40 hours of their time (comes out to $250/hr). Some people value their time above all else, refusing any monetary incentive. You simply can't buy their time.

If you think $40/hr is worth your time, do it. If you think $2/hr is worth your time, do it. The value is yours to set - it can fluctuate and change. But learning to value your time is worthwhile. You only get so much of it, so be sure you're happy with how you're spending it.

[0] I've been told that's terrible future planning, because I may need more cash in the future. I prefer to live in the now and worry about possible futures when it becomes the now. There are just so many futures to worry about and plan for. What if I worked harder to store away more money just to die of a heart attack without ever being able to enjoy my life? To avoid stress and simplify my life I don't worry about possible futures.

[brianwawok]

Free time is a bit of a curve too I think (like marginal utility).

In an entire 7 day week, if I only had 1 hour of freetime, I would value it at $1000. My 100th hour I might only value at $5, as I would be getting bored.

So if you are busy with family and commitments.. working from home vs not may be the difference between 10h and 0h of freetime a week. Whereas for a single guy with no hobbies, it might only change the balance from 30h of freetime to 40h of freetime, which is a bit less.

[Nadya]

That's why I specified a minimum per hour.

Even with constant free time - my mood can affect the price. If I'm not in the mood to work, I'd charge more. Free time itself can adjust in value. Nothing happening this weekend? Normal rate. I planned to go to an expo? Looking at x10 the normal rate if they expect me to miss that. I have a date planned? They're looking at an all expenses paid two week vacation for my date and I if they expect to be able to buy that time from me.

[benji-york]

This is a good way to look at it. I think an economist would call this your "marginal wage".

[posguy]

There is an opportunity cost to commuting, while you might not value it at your full hourly wage, taking a job that pays slightly less but has a 30min commute round trip instead of 4 hours can have large health and wellness benefits, and allow you to do things you previously couldn't (activities, business, etc).

Just curious, where all are you commuting between? I rarely hear people commuting over 2hrs round trip here on the West Coast, and a 2hr commute round trip can allow you to buy super far out in the gricklegrass, IE Tulalip, WA, where a couple acres with a house is ~170k, with a 5min drive to the park and ride and a 47min ride to Downtown Seattle. Living closer to the core, a similar house would be easily $500k, but it'd be a single seat, 20min bus ride, less if on the train.

[yazan94]

A commute from Connecticut to NYC is easily 2 hours and change one way. Some of my coworkers do this and it sounds horrendous.