How far should you live from work

Welcome back to another episode of how to twenty-something where today’s episode was a recommendation from one of you and it’s on how far should you live from work

And before I dive right into different commute lengths, I want to begin by saying that all of this really depends

It depends on whether or not you hate driving or traffic

It depends on if you like extended alone time

It depends on cost of living 

It depends on location

It depends on you and your preferences while also knowing that you do have the power to change your mind since you’re most likely renting an apartment with a lease expiration date

Yes moving is a hassle and annoying to do, but if you make one decision and regret it then you can try something new in a year and it won’t be the end of the world

So this episode is to help you make a decision based on what’s important to you when it comes to work, play, time, money, and how your commute impacts each of these things

And by the end of it, you’ll know your number and what that means for you and your lifestyle

Because there is no one right answer when it comes to your commute, there’s only going to be the best choice that supports you based on your goals, needs, and what you’re trying to build right now

I’ve personally had a 30 mile commute with my first job out of school and then a 4 mile commute with my second, a 2.5 mile one with my gym that I train people at, and now I’m down to 1 mile

And I will tell you that having a shorter commute is amazing

There’s no traffic stress, you’re not putting as much wear and tear on your car, not spending so much money on gas, and you feel like you gain time back if you made the switch from a long commute to a short commute

But I strategically made the decision to have a longer commute with that first job out of school solely because of location

For those of you who don’t know, my first job was a junior interior designer in a satellite office located in celebration, florida

And if you don’t know where that is, it’s one exit past disney driving west towards tampa

Disney is already 30 minutes outside of actual Orlando with no traffic and people who live in Celebration are families and then there’s surrounding areas like four corners has people in their twenties but they’re disney adults

Which there is nothing wrong with being a disney adult, i just am not one and if i want to make friends or choose to live with people then I need to know we’re going to have things in common

And for me that means not being disney obsessed

And mind you, i was moving to orlando not knowing anyone and knowing that I needed some roommates to offset my low income so finding people I could get along with and potentially befriend was very important to me

My personal requirements for where I lived was to be close to events, walking distance to restaurants and even the supermarket, safe location, and decently priced

I made my decision primarily based on how I wanted to spend my weekends which was with people my own age and having fun, going out, experiencing city life as a twenty-something

This is a perfect example of choosing weekend life over weekday convenience

So I sacrificed my car and my time during the week to give myself the opportunity to live my life on the weekends by finding an apartment a mile north of downtown orlando

And looking back, I would not change that decision at all because had I chose to live in the middle of nowhere near disney and the pandemic hit 7 months later, I would’ve been miserable

But that also meant strategizing my time a bit for the before work and after work hours so I didn’t feel like my entire week was being consumed by work

I highlight a lot more tactics to maximize your after work hours in my free downloadable resource 3 ways to maximize your 5-9 after your 9-5 which you can find in the show notes right now

All you have to do is put in your name and email and then check your inbox for the pdf

And one way I tried maximizing my time was finding a gym that was about halfway between work and my apartment

I started with going to the gym before work, bringing my protein shake, my work clothes, my shower stuff, and my lunch

Which definitely requires a lot of planning and prepping the night before but I thought this would be the best way to give myself the chance for more time to do things after work

However, it made me more tired and I still had about an hour of a commute on the way home due to all the traffic

I think about 3 months in I switched it to working out after work to break up that commute home since there was never any traffic getting to the office regardless of whether I left my apartment at 6am or at 8am

So I thought the extra two hours in the morning were worth it 

And that actually bought me back some time where I could stay up a little later and sleep in a little more and I got to shower at home instead at planet fitness

Now, on my way home from work, I would take the exit right where the traffic really began and go to the gym, get my workout in and when it was time to leave around 7 the traffic was gone and I was 15 minutes away from home

And if say there was a happy hour event I wanted to go to I would adjust that routine and workout in the morning for that day to be able to make it to the event that night

So it was helpful to begin my work experience with going before work because I knew if I needed to I could repeat that routine once a week or something

I chose where I lived to optimize my sense of community and fun and I did not choose my apartment based on work

But overall, my commute was not THAT bad

I would call my mom or a friend or my grandparents some days, I would listen to music other days

But I did have to fill my car up with gas every week, take my car in for more maintenance checks, and refused to drive anywhere on the weekends

I’m also someone who hates driving 

But if you love driving, then a longer commute isn’t such a bad thing

My second job in Orlando was 4 miles from where I lived and it was amazing to feel like I gained all this time back

And then I moved but basically mirror flipped where my job and gym was to the other side of town

My priorities also changed.. I cared more about quietness and peace, and less about being in close proximity to the bars downtown

I loved that second neighborhood.. It was on a beautiful 2.5 mile loop lake, super clean and safe, and extremely quiet

It was a peaceful place to live and it was still a 10 minute drive to work 

I also knew that that was my last place I was going to live in Orlando and that I was going to move to Charlotte when my lease was up 

I was in the process of building my new life and didn’t’ care so much about making friends, so it was okay for me to be further from the city scene 

I needed peace and a similar commute length… and like I said, my priorities shifted to match my next season

Here’s where this kind of decision can get kind of messy… if you’re in office all five days and are making that drive 5/7 days of the week it’s going to feel like a giant pain in the ass after the first few months of excitement dies down

So if you choose a longer commute, here’s how you survive it

What you’re going to want to do is find ways to work with the traffic patterns rather than adding to the amount of people on the road and do things after work that are near the office

If you have a dog at home that does make that a bit harder

I was actually talking about this with one of my clients who has about a 25 minute commute to work and a 45 minute commute home with traffic and a dog 

So she really doesn’t have much of a choice when it comes to doing things after work since her dog needs to be let out

And we discussed using rover or asking her boyfriend or a neighbor or something and she didn’t want to so that left her with the only option of put up with traffic

The other side of this conversation of where it depends comes back into play… not like it ever left

But you need to decide for yourself what commute is too long of a commute for you

Is it an hour, an hour and a half, 30 minutes

Is it mileage based like 50 miles of highway or 20 miles of side roads

Like this is a decision only you can make for yourself I’m just here to help you make an educated, informed decision and put in front of you things you probably have not taken into account when it comes to where you live versus where you work

I think the best exercise you can do when it comes to making this decision is grab a pen and paper and write down what’s important to you and what doesn’t really matter

Like is living near a city, if your job is in the outskirts, important to you or do you not mind driving into the city for fun on the weekends

it’s very possible you don’t care either way and if that’s the case then honestly, I would recommend living close to where you work

Because as I was saying at the start of this episode, it is far less stressful and irritating to make the commute

But if your work is in either a bad area of town or an expensive area of town then that will definitely influence your decision

Another thing to note is just like how deciding where to live, when it comes to leasing an apartment, is temporary.. Technically so is your job

In your twenties, optimizing everything around a job you won’t have forever is risky

You’re probably not going to be at this same exact place of employment for more than 3 years

Maybe even one year for a lot of you.. So if you make your decision on where to live solely based on your office then you might be shooting yourself in the foot in the grand scheme of things

This mentality especially applies with purchasing a home

You’re going to want to choose a house that creates a triangle with where you live, work, and play

So that when your job changes… because it will… you’re not regretting choosing a place to live that’s close to where you work and far from everything else

For most people, the sweet spot is under 20 minutes driving or under 40 minutes on public transportation but only if it supports what you want your twenties to look like

Because the reality is, you’re probably not going to live in a city for forever, you’re not going to make decisions based on your social life 10 years from now, your priorities are going to change with age

And that’s okay, they’re supposed to

Make a decision for this current season, this next year of your life based on the information you have right now

And know that this could all change based on what’s working and what’s not working when your lease ends in about a year

I’m very fortunate to live, work, and play all within a 3 mile radius but I know that’s not possible for a lot of you

Charlotte is a small city, everything is 15 minute drive away if you’re staying around the core of it

Where Orlando is much more spread out, boston is giant, nyc is massive

A lot of cities are huge and don’t give you the luxury I have right now and I understand that 

Which is why you need to take what I say and apply it to you… what matters to you

Is it time after work, is it having friends nearby or the opportunity to make friends nearby, is it avoiding traffic at all costs

The bottom line is you spend a lot of your life working, and your commute can dictate how you feel about your work, especially because every year they change the work from home policies

And you don’t want to resent your place of employment because your commute is a bitch to do 

I know this episode was kind of wish-washy with what the quote unquote right choice is and that’s because I can’t make that decision for you

You need to decide what’s important right now and choose where you want to live based on that 

Which could mean having basically no commute or it could mean having an hour long commute

I have two clients right now who both want to be able to live at home while working so they can save money and that looks like commuting an hour for their job and they are both okay with that

Because their priority is building their resume and saving money

At the end of the day, everyone is in a different situation, you need to turn inwards and ask yourself, not other people, for what your right answer is right now

Which is how I’m going to end this episode, thank you for listening to another episode of how to twenty-something 

If you liked what you heard, if this helped you make your decision on where to work versus live, or know someone who is trying to make this decision then please share this episode

Send it to a friend, share it on social media, just help me expand my reach to every twenty-something in this world trying to navigate the most confusing decade of their life

And as always, I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode