<prompt> Human: BACKGROUND: We bought my wifes Grandpas house with gifted equity in November 2011. Its in an area that was well out of our price range, excellent K-12 schools, community bike trails, 10 minutes to a National Forest, mountains, hiking, fishing, and amazing views east, south, and west. Gifted equity easily made the home affordable. Here is the downside, my commute is nearly 3 hours total each day on public transit and about 2 hours if I drive. A coworker today crunched the numbers and we determined that I have spent a total between 180-200 days communting, in a 6.5 year period. My plan is to stay with my current job for at least another 5ish years as it qualifies for Public Sevice Loan Forgiveness and I sincerely enjoy what I do and my coworkers. How would you approach the trade offs between the current location and possibly moving to reduce the commute? My view is that moving would siginificantly reduce commute Ideal would be 30 minutes or less but I would most certainly lose out on some or all the perks of my current location. My current mortgage payment is approximately 20 of take home pay, this would most likely go up at least to 30-35 if I moved closer, possibly up to 40. Our home equity is also about 48 - 53 of expected home sell price. We put approximately 13 of each paycheck into various savings vehicles. Has anyone dealt with something like this or similar? What were things that you took into consideration? Im serious about exploring my options in further depth serious enough this is my first reddit post!Thanks!  <response>: This one is more of a personal decision rather than cold hard dollars and cents. Sounds like you have kids in the school system? Your family truly enjoys the benefits of where you currently live? Youd win personally for a better commute , will the rest of the family sacrifice so that you dont have to? These are questions only you can answer. In a black and white scenario wed all agree that 2-3 hours commute is crazy and you should move closer but your scenario isnt really black and white.Your commute sounds like it sucks for sure. Is your employer open to you working remote at least a day or two a week? 