I have some friends who have great and big houses in the country or near the beach, but they live in the city, so they spend a couple of hours per day traveling to and from work to home. On the other hand there's people like me with relatively small flats, but on a walking distance to work. What would you prefer?
I think it depends on what the person prefers. Life quality is directly related to what makes the person feel better. I live in a relatively small apartment (2 small bedrooms) close to work, and I think that is ideal because I hate driving and traffic. So I would say that might be better when it comes to life quality. However, some people might prefer having the comfort of living in a mansion and spending over one hour in traffic! They will suffer for a couple of hours a day, but when they get home they will have way more comfort. The best thing would be so have a lot of money and have a mansion right next to work!! But how many are that lucky?
No, not many are like that, you're right. My brothers-in-law have a great house, huge, almost my dream house, but basically when they get home after work it's almost time to go to bed, so what's the point in that, a house for the weekends only? I think I'm happier with my small flat...
I hate long commutes. I couldn't travel a couple of hours to and from work. If it was that long it would feel like so much time has been wasted. My High School was the farthest I've had to travel and that was only about 10 minutes. I really like having everything close distance to me. Though, I'm not sure how much I would like to live in a flat but it would be better than traveling for hours.
It is better to stay near to the work place. Just imagine everyday wasting over 3 yours just on the road getting home. I think it really depends on what a person prefers on what they see is the best for them. Every person has a different taste in life.
I think the key here sometimes is thinking ahead. If you are moving a good choice would be to try to move near the place where you work. But if you already are living somewhere and get a new job relatively near, it's more difficult to move, but not impossible even so. It's really about priorities, we value more our time or our space?
I worked briefly for an advertising company for almost 3 months, and its way way too far from where I live. I mean, everyday, I had to wake up at 3AM, commute for almost 3-4 hours in the morning, work for 8-10 hours, go home at 5PM commute again for 3-4 hours again going home, arrive at 10 or 11PM then repeat for 3 months. Expenses are one thing, if you're in public transport, it'll be much cheaper to just going back and forth than renting a flat, also, it keeps me on my toes and on my budget, and If I'm living in the city there's bound to be a lot of expenses.
Wow death, 3-4 hours commuting? I could not cope with that ever, well, maybe I could if it was just for three months and it could mean something important for my life, but not as something permanent. Was it good for you those three months or you simply quit?
Personally, I am a country person and don't mind if it takes me an hour or more to travel to work, as long as I know that in the evening I can return back to my quiet retreat. A lot of my friends in Europe think that a work place should never be further than 20 minutes away. For me it presents no problem to drive a 100km a day to work and back. I am used to it and never even give it a second thought.
I think I'd prefer the big house, and a longer trip to work myself. I mean, I can spend that time reading my book, or catching up on my studies, whereas I couldn't really do that if my walk to work was a short time.
I don't think I'll get to the point where that's even an option sadly. I need a place near home because I don't know if I'll ever be courageous to get out and drive. Honestly, I don't need a big house though. Some big houses are pretty but if I were to get my own house, I just need a bedroom that's a little bigger than the one I have now and I'd be satisfied.
In some areas of the USA, the cost of living is insanely high. The jobs may be there, but people work just to pay high rents/mortgages and taxes. They can look for a place to live in areas outside of the city and end up paying much less. The commute time/travel cost inconvenience may seriously outweigh the cost of living closer to work.
That's quite right DDavies, for one you might be paying too much to be living in a big city, if you're living outside you pay too much and lose too much time to go there, so the question is, why not move and go looking for a better life?
Actually, a compromise might involve living in the city during the week and then have a 2nd country home for the weekends. Anyway, I really don't enjoy living in the city that much cause it's too noisy and polluted and everyone is too close. However, it's vastly cheaper as you have to spend massive amounts on gasoline to go to work. For instance, I was getting a pizza today, and this guy in line was telling someone else of how he had to pay 25 dollars a day - just to go to work in a town only 40 miles away.
I'm not a nature loving person, so I would prefer to live in the city where it's near where I work and near almost eveything, like it's near malls, vet clinics, hospitals, the city hall, etc. so if ever I need to buy something or if my pet gets sick then going there would be very convenient.
This is a good site for an intellectual argument. We used to live in the city, just one bus ride away from our place of work. But we were renting a house then for 8k pesos per month. When I was granted a housing loan benefit, we bought a house in the suburbs with the monthly installment of 11k. Not bad, right? Now here is the issue. Our less than 1 hour travel from home to work is now more than 2 hours for a total of maybe 5 hours travel time every day (back and forth). That’s the downside. But the upside is the peace and quiet in our village, lots of trees, no crowds. And there are malls in the nearby commercial centers. Pretty good, I’d say.
I'm okay with small flats as long as it's near my work if I'm starting to build my investments. Travel costs would just be a huge waste in that case.
When we had a family run grocery store we lived on top of it so all we had to do was to walk down stairs, open a couple of doors and we were at work. I loved this, no waking up early to go to work just walk down stairs was so convenient and fast. I had a job just like your friends have far away and it was so much of a hassle getting up early, coming home late to live in the country home where it was rural so smells from farms permeated when the winds blew a certain direction. It was quiet, it had horses and smells living in rural country. I like the city near supermarkets, people and bar b que smells. I live now just half a block away from Marukai Wholesale Mart. Old habits never die, lol.
Well my opinion is that it depends on one's own way of living and interests. I like to be in a comfortable home, not too large and not too small. Just the way I liked. See. It all depends on one's own interest and the standard of living.
Yeah, it's something totally subjective, as some prefer a larger house, and others value their time more. I do prefer to be close to where I work in a central place because that gives me more time to do sports and to be with the kids, so maybe when they grow older I can get another conveniences.
