Americans (and perhaps other English-speakers) have the saying,

“There are only two certainties in life: taxes and death.”

This is quite appropriate, but for most of us, paying rent or a mortgage, and thus employment are further chapters in this long saga of necessary evils.  Unfortunately, full-time gainful employment robs us of a quarter of our life, or half of our waking hours.

That all aside, some employment-associated baggage can be eliminated by choosing our residence wisely.  Many people in my home town of Washington actually live an hour outside in the suburbs and commute daily two hours roundtrip, ten hours weekly.  They choose to do this because they own a house somewhere in the boondocks, and in classical American logic, house-ownership is godliship.

I too commuted 2 hours a day for 4 months this year after changing employer from a company near Zurich to one near Basel.  During these four months, my ten-hourly trainriding cost me about $250 a month, which is soft compared to the costs I would have accumulated driving a car.  However, I rode those ten hours only to go to work, so in essence, they were unpaid work hours. 

If the employer doesn’t pay for the travel to and from work (and some employers DO!) then it is up to the employee to live as close as possible to the source of his/her rent-payments.  Otherwise this workplace-associated clutter (commute, fitness center due to ten seated-hours a day) will eat at the employee’s physical and mental health.  Think: During the winter you will not seeing daylight in your abode except on weekends.

My new residence is a half-hour’s walk from my employer.  I could have lived 5-10 minutes away, but the current constellation permits me to do my (daily) grocery-shopping and recycling disposal on the ways to and from work, as well as gives me an hour’s walk a day to remind my body that there exists more to life than sitting in front of the machine.  The money I am saving per month from the commute is a better one-time investment for rain-clothing (walking rain or shine), which is a useful for the weekends and vacations. 

Commuting to work over long distances and times in transportation that can breakdown or be otherwise unavailable is a certain road to depression.  I’ve noticed that colleagues of mine have needed to take vacation-hours to bring their car to the mechanic!  What a tragic waste!  I will always be able to walk, barring broken-legs and tornados, which are circumstances that would either warrant sick-leave or would close my employer’s facilities.  Home-ownership is fine and dandy but my mental health and physical well-being are dearer to me.  Living on small rental properties permits me to save money for alternative investments.  Never live further than a half-hour’s walk from work, unless the employer will pay the commute time and ticket (a scenario one can find, at least among employers in Switzerland)….or if the employer’s compensation package is large enough for you to want to make such large sacrifices.