Buying more time in the day

Time is our most valuable commodity simply because it is finite resource. But while you can't technically buy more time, you can optimize the things you do in your day to make more discretionary time available to you.

The number one thing to do is shorten your commute. I suppose this is one of those things ingrained in me from childhood. We lived literally 300 yards from where he worked. He walked to work every day. Now I haven't achieved that level of optimization, but for 11 years I've lived less than 10 miles from work. I currently live 3 miles away: a 6 minute drive or 12 minute bike ride. I've also been biking to work regularly since 2001: another optimization I've previously written about.

Now I understand the appeal of living in SF or the East Bay (or even Marin or Auburn). But I assert the total costs outweigh the benefits. Spending 2 hours in the car 5 days a week is not worth the coolness of living in the city, or the cost savings of living on the rural fringe. Really that cost savings is negligible when you now factor in the high price of commuting today.

I probably could have saved $300k buying a comparable house in Alameda county. But my commute would have been 1.5 hours/day longer. At 180 commute-days/year over the course of a 30-year career, that works out to $37/hour.

So the question is, would you pay $37 for an extra hour in your day?