I have been reading this site and MMM is always talking about being close to work. While I would love it, I'm not sure it makes financial sense in my case. I'd like it if some people could weigh in with opinions and maybe give me some other points of view.
Home Situation: My wife and I have a condo which is paid for. It's a 2 bedroom all freshly renovated with an excellent view in the near suburbs of Atlanta. It's 12 miles from my work and 12 from my wife's work, opposite directions. She commutes against traffic and I commute with traffic. I hate traffic, my wife doesn't mind much. I'm a consultant so my work location ends up changing. I am a contractor though so I do have choice of whether I take a project or not. I've tried biking and the motorists are too aggressive and hostile around here. More to the story but just leave it at biking from here is no longer an option. I don't need more exercise, my biggest hobby is endurance running and I bike too in the park nearby. I have the option of public transportation but it takes longer than driving. I work about 50 hours/week so time is important. It doesn't really save money either unless I get rid of the car. I'm not in favor of selling the car while I live here because the savings is not justified by the convenience.
Financial situation: I've been frugal all of my life. My wife is also at this point. I'd be retired by now but I took 4 years off from 2002-2006 to pursue higher education and burned through quite a bit of my savings during that time. Currently have no debt and are saving about 60% of income based on 401k + after tax savings. Current projections have us retiring in about 4.5 years. After retirement, we'll be moving to the country and buying or building a small home.
Option 1: Change nothing and wait for retirement.
Option 2: Move in-town and sell condo/car. We would try and rent a one bedroom but when going through stuff, we'd need at least a large 1 bedroom. The preference would be for a two bedroom similar in size to what we have but that's $1000/month more. My wife is not willing to give up the high-end look that we have so that puts us in the 1500-2000/month rent category for a 1BR.
Condo value after commissions: 90,000. Still hasn't quite recovered here since we had a lot of foreclosures.
Car resale value: 13,000. (Using 15,000 to make the math cleaner)
EDIT:
So 105,000*5%/12 ~= 430/month opportunity cost.
Current expense:
Opportunity cost : 430
Car : 350
Condo direct cost: 350
Est maintenance : 100
Total: 1230
Proposed expense:
Rent: : 1500-2000
Intangibles: Less space, less commute. Not near any parks if I go near my current place of work. Rent is even higher if I go to Midtown near a park which is nice for my biking/running but then I'd have a short commute. That could be done by bike though. There are enough cyclists in-town to make it safer.
Opinions and suggestions regarding the point in question are appreciated.
Thanks.