How Long would you commute

I am looking for a new job and I have a line on one that would be a major promotion, but it would involve a commute that would be at least 1:30 each way. I can probably work from home a couple days each week.
How far would you be willing to commute? Am I an idiot to be considering this?

I did 1:15 each way in Houston. It's not fun losing 10+ hours every week.

Is the time due to traffic or distance?

Both; it would be about 70 miles into the heart of Chicago. Thinking about it some more; I would probably be traveling at least 25% of the time, so all I would have to do is go into O'hare; that is 65 minutes from my house and I've been doing that for years.
I wouldn't even consider this but I am looking at pretty much doubling my salary.

Camping57 said:

Both; it would be about 70 miles into the heart of Chicago. Thinking about it some more; I would probably be traveling at least 25% of the time, so all I would have to do is go into O'hare; that is 65 minutes from my house and I've been doing that for years.
I wouldn't even consider this but I am looking at pretty much doubling my salary.

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Any chance you could take advantage of the METRA system? Doubling your salary is pretty awesome, especially if you're traveling and you can work from home...would only be a few days a week.

Where do you live? Naperville/Bolingbrook area here

Well you don't get very many opportunities to double up like that.

One thing that helped was setting my hours to 7:30am-4pm so you can avoid the traffic factor. I ended up getting to work around 6am to workout in the company gym for an hour then 30 minutes to S/S/S and get into the office.

And getting home earlier will give you time to cook and whatnot. It sucks going to bed around 10pm but it was worth it IMO.

I communte about 80 minutes each way. I work from home on Wednesday's and it is awesome. It really breaks up the commuting week knowing that I can sleep in an extra 90 minutes on Wednesday.

I've driven anywhere between 50-90 minutes for work for years. For some reason I always manage to live far from my office. It's all about your preference, I guess. I hate the drive, but at the same time, I like the drive in the morning, having time to wake up, get my thoughts in order before I get to the office, and get ready for the day. The long drive home helps me wind down a bit, and clear my mind before I walk through the door and get that first beer. The job itself and compensation, of course, can make the drive worth while.

Do you have to drive? What about taking the train?

I hadn't thought about the train. I need to see about stations on the Lincolnwood end.

I live in Rockford. They said that flex time would be possible too. I don't mind getting up early; I used to have to get up at 3:30 a lot when I traveled to Detroit each week.
Getting home late would be a drag because I do most of the cooking for us.

My wife used to commute 1 hour each way. I convinced her to take a job 15 minutes away but she took a pay cut of about 10K. When we figured out the price of gas (prices 4 years ago) and mileage and maintenance on her car we saved money with the new job. The best part was she got to be home an hour and a half more a day. The new job would have to pay very well for me to drive an hour and a half each way.

With a doubled salary why don't you just move to the city? I'm sure you could find a nice place up north around Lincoln Square that would put you 10 minutes from Lincolnwood. Just a thought.

We have our mortgage paid off and don't really want to take on a new one. I have about 8 years until I retire.
I may try this for a while and if it turns out to be too much, I can always look for something closer.

It's a beating commuting that long every day, even if traffic is light. It sucks to lose that much time in your day and there's only so much you can really do while driving. If you can make the long commute a short term issue it's a good strategy but if you can't move closer to the job in the foreseeable future the costs of the commute (plus your time) may make that bump in pay less enticing.

I commute 1.5 hrs each way (in LA traffic), and have for 8 years now. It does make for a long day, but you get used to it. If you can telecommute a couple days, or flex schedule it really might not be so bad, especially when you can look forward to retirement in 8 years.

You do also have to consider the travel costs though. Currently fuel costs me $800 a month, insurance is higher because of the rated distance. I put 30k miles a year on my truck, so new tires are in order about every 1.5 years, oil changes are almost monthly, and disk brakes about once a year. I'm hoping to get 300k miles out of this truck but you never know.

I work commercial construction and ya have to go were the work is, so I have commuted 2 hours each way on some jobs. Its rough but if your talking about working from home a couple times a week and only need to go into the office 3 times a week, take the big pay increase driving only 3 times a week should not be that bad.

Don't to forget to factor in all the extra gas, parking, and wear and tear on your vehicle. If you can work from home a couple days a week that would be awesome. My dad traveled around the state for work, many days he drove 1-2 hours each way. I helped him one year with getting the taxes organized for his business, the vehicle expense for gas, oil changes, tires, brakes, etc really added up, and that was when gas was $1.50/gal and you could get a oil change for $12-15.

I live in a town that sucks, but is really close to work. I figure I can drive to a better town 1 or 2X a week to go out to eat, shop etc. In your case I would view it as 3 extra hours of work each day + expenses. Compare that to the new salary and see what you think

I spent 8 years doing industrial sales in a two state territory and I averaged about 45,000 miles each year, so I'm used to being in the car. If I can get it to averaging 3 days a week in the office I don't think it would be too bad. I can buy a new car every 6 months with the pay bump.

Camping57 said:

I spent 8 years doing industrial sales in a two state territory and I averaged about 45,000 miles each year, so I'm used to being in the car. If I can get it to averaging 3 days a week in the office I don't think it would be too bad. I can buy a new car every 6 months with the pay bump.

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Is that factoring gas, tolls, etc.?

Just paying the tolls every day can really add up in Chicago.

Personally I would do it if I could use public transportation most of the way. That frees up a lot of your time every day for more relaxing pursuits than going crazy over traffic.

Leaving early and going to the gym near work is an easy way to avoid traffic at least on the way in. Definitely look into getting some audiobooks. I used to travel 70-80% of the time for work and audible.com kept me sane.

Depends on the pay I guess. For $1,000,000 a year I would drive pretty far, for $40,000 not so far. Then again, I would drive 4 hours to get to a job I only worked 4 hours and got paid for an 8 hour day.

I have driven up to almost an hour for a decent job if that helps. I find driving enjoyable. Time alone, scenery changes and I have the radio I can listen to news, talk radio or music and practice my singing. Then there are audio books. Drive time to work doesn't have to be a waste of time.

Update: I got a call from another company and they have offered me even more money and I get to work from HOME! I'm getting back into what I used to do for about 10 years and they want me to coordinate things for them globally. It pays to be lucky!

About 30 minutes is my limit.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

It's a beating commuting that long every day, even if traffic is light. It sucks to lose that much time in your day and there's only so much you can really do while driving. If you can make the long commute a short term issue it's a good strategy but if you can't move closer to the job in the foreseeable future the costs of the commute (plus your time) may make that bump in pay less enticing.

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This. I made the mistake of taking on a "better" job w/ a 2+ hr commute (one-way) and it eventually destroyed my health. My PT said she sees a lot of stress and commuting-related stroke/cardiac patients, which is why she moved her practice to the far-flung suburbs.

The work at home gig sounds great and I hope it comes through for you.

My commute is 50,000 miles+ a year(4 hours a night), stop whining and take it.

Hey, whatever works for you, but for me it wasn't worth my health or the collateral damage.