For a bit over ten years I spent on average 1.5 hours each way commuting to NYC from Staten Island. The commute took a toll on me, on my marriage, and just my o

For a bit over ten years I spent on average 1.5 hours each way commuting to NYC from Staten Island. The commute took a toll on me, on my marriage, and just my overall happiness. Inclement weather, an accident, or constant road construction would often increase a one-way trip to nearly 2 hours. I couldn't stay out late, because of the bus schedules, and if I fell asleep on the bus after a certain hour and missed my stop, there was no bus to take my back to where my connection to my second bus was. It was frustrating. Coupled with being too married to my job and overall stress, it led to separating from my wife. I then moved right in to the city, a 15 minute walk to work. My overall happiness increased significantly. I could hang out with friends, stay out late if I wanted to - and I almost always found my place to be the place people would want to be at (somewhat opportunistic due to locality - but that's 100% fine by me). The price I paid was nearly quadrupling my rent. I felt like I deserved to treat my self to one year of this - and I quite enjoyed it - but the high rent was just not sustainable when you factor in alimony and past debt. I then moved to a place about 30-40 minutes away from work. The commute was nice, the distance is about just right, and the rent was $700 less than my Manhattan apartment. I immediately saw a drop off in how many people would be coming to visit me - once again, I am fine with that and understand the circumstances there. The problem is that now my building is raising my rent by $300 - and the expensive commute costs really don't offer much savings compared to living in the city anymore - this spot has been "discovered" and will now just keep going up like the rest of the commutable areas to NYC. So, this Monday, I am moving back to Staten Island - I will have twice the amount of space, dropping another $1000 from my current rent, and my commute will be about 1hr. I now have the opportunity to work from home a bit more, so by breaking up my week and staying home on Wednesdays, it will take the stress off of commuting in every day. A lot of the people I work with and manage work remotely - and they live all across the country - they don't have to worry about commuting in in the morning, and can live where they want to live -- sure, there are other disadvantages to working remotely, but as the availability of high-internet speeds and technologies make working remotely easier and more common place. As this improves, and more companies understand and embrace remote work mentality, I see the necessity of being chained to a big tech hub like SF or NYC to be far less important.