However my hours are a little weird. I am allowed to work 11-7pm every day if I want, so to get the 12 hours I'd need to either come in early (and I'm not a morning person) or stay late. I'd have to stay till 9 each night if I came in at 11.
I also have a 1.5 hour commute each way :(
I should really try to get in around 10 each day and just stay till 7:30.
If you've read
Your Money Or Your Life (YMYL), you know that one of the first principles of FI is determining your
real hourly wage. For you, three hours of commuting per day is really going to drive your true hourly wage down. Given that, I would definitely max out your overtime, at least for a while. This would help to offset the cut you're taking due to the commute (i.e. it would improve your overall wage efficiency).
If it's at all possible, if you can eliminate (or at least dramatically reduce) the commute, you could work that overtime, and still come out ahead in terms of non-work-related hours (i.e. more time for "real life").
If fixing the commute isn't an option, then I'd say you might want to consider a different job. Unless you're making mega-bucks, as I said before, that three-hour commute is killing your real wage. If you run the math, you might be able to find a job with a minimal (say 15 minutes or less) commute; even if the "paper" wage is lower, you'll probably still come out ahead in terms of real wages. Not to mention, if that 1.5 hour commute is
driving, you're really cutting into your wages.
I suppose you could be biking or walking 1.5 hours each way---I think that definitely qualifies as bad-ass! I'm assuming that's not the case. :)
I'm assuming you're not in love with your job or you wouldn't have made this post. That makes it much easier to reduce to a purely rational decision, rather than an emotional or gut-feel one. Do the math: find your real wage. Take your annual
post-tax pay, and subtract out all work-related expenses. This is any money you wouldn't spend if you didn't have the job, such as gas and maintenance on your car (or your mass transit ticket), any special clothing or uniforms, supplies, etc. Divide that number by total hours worked
plus time spent commuting. This is your
real hourly wage. Next step, do some research. How much would it cost you to move to a place where the commute goes away or is minimized? Also, what other jobs are available near where you live now? Run the math for those two scenarios as well. The biggest real wage will be the most efficient situation. As long as it covers the bills and allows you to save at your target rate, it's almost certainly the best choice (assuming the "soft" factors are good, e.g. no sucky work environement).