TL;DR - skip till linebreak:
So I graduated college almost exactly a year ago, and have now wound up working in NYC as a software engineer at a great company. I've always had little theories in my head about how lifestyle inflation and debt are things I'd like to avoid with my decent salary - and always entertained the thought of retiring early. Then, of course, I found MMM and read the whole blog front to back over a couple weeks, and everything became so much clearer to me.
I started off by paying off all of my student loans, instead of paying them off slowly while letting my money rot in the bank. About a 4.3% annual return! Would be maybe wiser to invest, and hope for greater returns while paying off loans, but I prefer to have a debt-free mind.
I also committed to not getting a car any time soon. I used to have one until I totaled it in a big accident (no other cars hit). The car was very old and I got as a gift from a family member, so it wasn't a huge disaster. I realized that I only have need of a car once or twice per month with my current lifestyle. Usually I can just bike in those circumstances, or worst case, borrow one of the three cars that other family members have around. Not having a car saves me on wasted insurance, and of course, gas.
As a helplessly technical person, I eventually entrenched myself in hordes of spreadsheets to do calculations across various assumptions to see when I would retire. Looks like I can pull it off in 6 or 7 years, to the tune of a 30 to 40k income at a 4% WR. I'm super excited about that possibility, though it seems like an eternity away at this point.
Anyway, the problem I have is this:
I work in NYC. I live in NJ, with my parents (paying minimal rent). This saves me a bit of money, but also costs me around 2-2.5 hours a day of commuting time. Here's some numbers that I'm playing around with, for greater clarity:
Income: $110,000 (NYC + NJ taxes eats a lot of it)
+ $20,000 stock in company
+ $15,000 annual bonus
+ $9,000 'free' money from 401k match
And here are my current monthly expenses:
Rent: $400
Loan Payments: $0 - Yay paid off!
Commute: $500 (bus tickets + subway aint cheap)
Other: $300 (sort of a safety margin to keep my estimates conservative)
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TOTAL: $1,200 monthly expenses
Where I work serves free breakfast lunch and dinner, and I eat at home, so my food costs are practically zero, saving me a lot of money. But I hate commuting so long every day. But if I move closer to the city, I want to move within biking range of work... which means living in Manhattan, which is very very expensive. Here's my hypothetical Manhattan numbers:
Rent: $1,400
Commute: $100 (Complete guesswork. Just assuming I want to get around)
Food: $300 (Need to feed myself on weekends and often dinners. Just guesswork mostly though)
Other: $300
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TOTAL: $2,100
Almost double my monthly expenses. Which could add a year or two to my estimates. What should I do? Move to a place a little closer and still use public transportation? Is it worth paying a ton for rent just to remove a soul-sucking commute?