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Steve-olsen.com has a great post today about the high cost of commuting to work. Stan approaches the cost from the lost opportunity cost factor. Or, the cost of something in terms of opportunity forgone, i.e. commuting.
Stan uses the example of a couple who purchased a home that requires a commute of 1.5 hours to work each way. He also determines they are skilled technology workers worth $100 per hour. And he comes up with the following formula for his calculations.
(Commute time * Productivity per hour) * Days Commuting per year
(3 * 100) * 230 = 69K
Based on similar formulas I calculated the following numbers:
* Yearly opportunity cost – $69,000
* Lifetime (30 years) opportunity Cost – $2,070,000
* 8-hour work days spent commuting per year – 86.25
* Lifetime (30 years) work days commuting – 2587.5
* Number of work years spent commuting – 11.25
That’s right! They will spend the equivalent of 11.25 work years driving to and from work. I defined a work year as 230 8-hour days.
So, take the same formula and apply it to your hourly rate and the commute you have to and from the office. Now ask yourself, is it really worth having the expensive downtown office. Especially when you consider the fact that if you were a “Connected Lawyer” you could most likely do almost everything you do in the downtown office in a well equipped home office. And if you are like me, you commute to work would take, what 2 minutes. And you could carry your cup of coffee to the office and not worry about spilling it in the car. And the worse traffic you might see is the children racing out the door to make it to school on time. And to make things even worse, you could actually enjoy a cup of coffee with your spouse without eating that dry toast going out the door. Oh the problems of the “carpet commute”.
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