by We’ve finally relocated! The two-year goal of moving closer to work has finally been realized. The stressful 40-minute one-way commute is no longer a part of our lives. We got lucky and found an apartment only five minutes from our jobs!
Tatiana and I both work for the same company, which is convenient because we can carpool. While some may consider living five minutes from work to be too close to work, we see it as an opportunity to be almost home the moment we leave the company campus.
Did we buy a house?
Many of our friends assumed that we were going to buy a house. The expected course of your life is to marry and buy a starter home. When you outgrow your home, you sell it and buy a larger home to accommodate a growing family, stay in it for a while, and then downsize when the children are grown.
After all, banks, real estate firms, and the government all prefer this route. Of course, things are done differently here.
We take the path that makes the most sense for us, regardless of what society says. We recognize that a home is a place to live, not an investment. If we consider it as an investment, after deducting all expenses, the rate of return can be extremely low.
Buying a home entails a large down payment, sales taxes, interest, a slew of fees, and potentially significant maintenance and upkeep costs. We can get the positive emotional return of homeownership from the place we rent at this stage of our lives.
If we had felt the need to buy a house, we would have saved enough money to make it mostly cash. For the time being, we are content to own a profitable rental property in another area that subsidizes a portion of the rent we pay to our landlord.
Main reasons for moving
Our main reasons for moving were that we outgrew our first rented apartment and wanted to be closer to work to avoid the long commute. We’re now so close to work that on snow days, instead of driving, we can walk a few blocks and take the work shuttle from the local train station parking. Of course, that is only if we feel the need to come into the office during a storm because we can work remotely.
Moving to our new location was a great decision
Our new home is surrounded by a public park that feels like an extension of our backyard and offers plenty of space for our future children to run and play.
We also received a fantastic upgrade! We’ve been waiting for this incredible electrical invention for a long time. We couldn’t wait to hear these filthy objects being blasted with water by rotating spray arms. That’s right, the one and only, amazing dishwasher was a must-have for our new apartment!
Tatiana, the former dishwasher, has been promoted to “Just Pots and Pans Scrubber” after putting in countless hours of hard work. I’m curious about what she plans to do with all of her free time.
This move saves us time in addition to providing us with a larger apartment that allows us to expand our family. Those of us pursuing financial independence understand the value of time in our lives. We’ll be able to save an hour and ten minutes per day on average in commuting time. That equates to 5.5 hours per week!
We can now go home immediately after work instead of waiting for traffic to clear, and put that commuting time to good use by cooking an early dinner, doing some hobbies, engaging in more intimate activities, sipping a glass of wine, having a beer on the porch with friends, or having fun working on this blog.
We can sleep in more, eat breakfast at home, and make time for meditation now that we have more time in the morning. This move is assisting us in improving our quality of life. That is priceless to us.
Awesome news. A lot of state governments love to hit you with a transfer tax when you buy or sell that can be up to a few percentage points of the property’s purchase value. No wonder most people have to work for 30+ years.
Hi Travis,
That is correct. It’s usually around 1% of the sale price. We’re avoiding this tax completely by renting. Thanks for dropping by.
Oh! This post resonates with me so much. I spent about 8 years commuting a total of 3 hrs a day which led to a lot of unhappiness, expenses and time wasted of my life- 8 months of it to be exact. So when we moved, I insisted that we live closer to my husband’s work, even if that meant paying more for a house. The time wasted on the road is precious!
Wow, it’s great that you were able to cut the commute time. Cheers to that!
Like you I had a nasty 1 hr commute each way. Granted, it was via train but boy does it make a difference to live 15 mins away from work. Now if only I could work to my company shuttle 🙂
It certainly does! I’m sure your ears appreciate not having to deal with the 80 decibel train noise every day.