Quote:
Originally Posted by meanjoe75fan
3. Economists generally value a persons time at 70% of their wage rate. So $25/HR for "lost commute time" implies a near $40/HR hourly rate! What are we, strippers and dealers?
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Senior application developer. My 70% rate would be $36.75/hour.
And actually, I do find that the time spent commuting is the absolutely most expensive part of it...
For some reason, my employer decided to locate in the middle of the upper crust shopping mall district instead of the run down old part of town where the 1926 house I'm fixing up is. That puts my commute at about 30 minutes.
I don't really mind an hour on my 2005 Suzuki VStrom motorcycle every day(that isn't icy), but it does annoy me that there's an entire hour every day I have to dedicate to commuting. There aren't enough hours in the day as it is!
$36.75/hour for 250 commutes is only 9,187.50 a year, vs. possibly having a 1/3rd commute of that for $100K more in housing cost. The almighty dollar says... Commute can make sense. Even for highly paid professionals. But the housing cost gradient has to be quite steep.