My favorite work story, from a few years ago...
CW bought a new house in the suburbs and commuted via the toll road (most of us did; our employer was located on the toll highway and Houston traffic is evil).
As a native Houstonian and have lived here my entire life, I've actively avoided toll roads the whole time. I feel as if they are mostly a scam. I feel sorry for the people who live and/or work off of them.
What part of Houston are you located in? I've yet to meet any Mustachians in my area, although I am sure there are quite a few inner loopers.
To keep my post on the topic:
Yesterday, we had a little meeting at work to announce stuff like birthdays, babies, anniversaries, and promotions. One of my bosses announced that he was moving into a new home. Someone proceeded to ask a typical Houston question, "How far is the commute now?" Insinuating that it was going to be longer, as most people move farther and farther away as they make more money (kind of backward, right?)
Anyways, his reply was, "Oh you know, the same terrible commute down xx highway. It'll still be
the regular 45 minutes or so, so not too bad really."
I was facepalming hard in my head, thinking about how he made a conscious decision to move slightly farther from work for a bigger, more luxurious house, in another bland suburban neighborhood. The prices of homes in that neighborhood, in case anyone was wondering,
average 425k and 3,000 square feet. That's mansion status in my mind.
For that price, he could live within 2 miles of his job, still be in an amazing community, and have
1.5+ hours of his life back per day (or: 7.5h a week, 30h a month, 360h a year). I subscribe to the "day within a day" philosophy from the book "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" by Arnold Bennett, so that extra 1.5 hours would be a LOT of hobby/family time!
Then the worst part was, everyone else seemed to be envying his decision and home purchase. Another co-worker said after he gets married next year, he's planning on moving to the 'burbs for the "community" aspect. As having lived in 2 major suburbs of Houston and lived in the city, there is no community in EITHER unless you make a ton of effort. But in the 'burbs it's even more difficult because everyone is too tired to meet up from commuting all day and we still live so far apart! Insanity. Rant over.