Guys, if you commute to work, then you

are a sucker. I'm sorry to tell you

that. Studies show that your happiness

level is inversely proportional to the

length of your commute. And furthermore,

the same studies show that if you have a

1-hour long commute, then you have to be

making 40% more to be equally happy as

someone with a short walking commute.

Let that sink in. You know, when you try

to measure your happiness in a sort of

holistic way, a lot of nerds get way too

caught up on purely the total comp

number. You know, they'll they'll get in

your face and be like, "How much you

make? 400. I made 450 beat you." And

it's like, it isn't about just the total

comp number. You know, they get so

caught up in this dick measuring

contest. It's about holistically the

whole equation for happiness, which

includes things like cost of living and

quality of life. And so I'm going to

show you how to weigh all that together

to get a more holistic number that you

want to be measuring. So in this video

I'm going to cover the full spectrum

from working remotely which is ideal to

having to have a commute and how to

optimize it to be short and then the

opposite extreme which is living at work

which can work as well. Let's get into

it. So one of the hidden blessings in

disguise of CO is that it's made remote

jobs way more acceptable. And so given

the studies I cited, you should be

willing to take almost a 40% pay cut if

your boss lets you work from home.

Obviously, don't show your hand and tell

them this, but that's what the

statistics show. That's how much more

happiness you buy by getting to work

from home. Now, if you manage to work

from home, ideally, you want to move to

a state with no state tax. So, the

cooler states without state tax, I would

say, are Texas and Florida. So getting

to work for a job in say New York City

or San Francisco, but working remotely

from Texas or Florida would be ideal. If

you can move to a lower cost of living

state, that's still pretty cool. That's

really the the balance you're looking

for. So to give you an idea of how like

one of my friends pulled this off, one

of my friends worked at this investment

bank in New York City and he was really

good at his job. He asked his manager if

he could work from home one day a week.

His pace of productivity remained

unchanged for that period. So then he

slowly asked if he could make it 2 days

a week and then 3 days a week and he

managed to do this over like a year. By

the end of the year he was fully remote.

So from there he moved to Chattanooga,

Tennessee with his family which is like

this big remote working town. He's

paying like $500 a month to live in this

huge house. That's like an optimal

situation as far as geo arbitrage. Now

there's a lot of different ways to pull

this off. I have another friend who

works at a company in Boston. She knows

the partners well and has been there for

a long time. So through CO, she got to

work from Costa Rica and be doing kite

surfing and things like that, spear

fishing. After CO ended, she just asked

if she could spend uh winters in Costa

Rica and summers in Boston. So she's

basically doing like the whole snowbird

thing, and they were okay with it. So a

lot of times you just have to build good

relationships with the partners or

owners and uh build a reputation for

being productive even when you're

working from home. And once you build

that trust, they don't really have an

issue with you doing that because what

does it matter to them? they get extra

office space. Now what's even more ideal

in my opinion is geo arbitrageing abroad

but a lot of finance firms and you know

bigger firms tend to not allow this

because there's all these legal

complications when you're technically

working from another country but there

are firms that allow this especially

startups which are more lax on

regulations and things like this and so

there's a lot of dudes who work out of

Mexico City because it's roughly in the

same time zone as most firms in the

United States and the GeoR is insane cuz

the cost of living is so much better.

Dating life is better. Just everything

about it. Quality of life, cost of

living are getting max stats. You should

be willing to take a lower salary if you

could do such a geo. Now, because this

geoarb is so desirable, there's a lot of

people who try to do this under the

radar by using VPNs and being really

sneaky. And some people do get away with

it for a long time, but other people get

caught eventually. So, you know, if

you're going to attempt to do this, do

it at your do do it at your own risk and

uh know that you could get fired

instantly if you get caught because it

is usually in the employee handbook that

you're not allowed to work from outside

of the country. And just like legal

liability wise, they pretty much have to

fire you immediately and plead ignorance

cuz they don't want to get sued by

clients by having an employee that's

working outside of the country. So, if

you are one of these people that is

attempting to fraud your way into acting

like you live in one city while you're

technically working from another city,

before you log in every morning,

definitely check the weather at the city

you're pretending to be in. Cuz you

don't want to get caught flatfooted when

they're like, "Oh boy, you how you how

you surviving that snowstorm?" Or, you

know, like, "Oh, you guys are having

that hurricane there, right? How how are

you working from home right now? Didn't

they do like a mandatory evacuation?"

you know, so you want to like look that

stuff up so that your you know your your

narrative is consistent with the weather

of your area and you know they don't

grow suspicious cuz I actually had a

friend who was working at the same hedge

fund as me. Him and I were both working

from Miami while our hedge fund was in

Chicago. At some point they asked us

after co to come back to Chicago. So I

just came back because you know I want

to follow the rules but he was like no

they're just not going to notice. He

came back for like a week or two and

then just went back to Miami and he

eventually got caught. You know, people

just figured it out. He would be dressed

in this like tropical weather. Those

like Hawaiian t-shirts with like leave

leaves and flowers on them and in his

Zoom calls while while there's like a

snowstorm going on in Chicago. And um I

don't know, people just eventually

figured it out. So if you're going to

attempt to do that, just like you got to

stay on top of it. You got to be careful

cuz he basically got fired the moment

they figured that out. All right. So, if

you can't get your boss to let you work

remotely, let's talk about commuting.

So, one of the main reasons why

commuting makes people so unhappy is

because of the stress. You know, if you

have a driving commute, you have to pay

attention to the road the whole time.

You know, just like watching to see that

you're between the lines and you know,

in the winter when there there's

snowstorms, it's like super stressful.

There could be patches of black ice and

you lose traction. And you know,

speaking of that, a lot of people don't

realize this, but the number one cause

of death for people under the age of 44

is car accidents. So, you're taking

incredible risk every time you have a

driving commute, especially when, you

know, driving is the first thing you do

in the morning. You know, a lot of times

you're a little foggy in the head and

you're rushing to work and it's easier

to get into a car accident. But, let's

say you have a a public transportation

commute. That's stressful, too. you

know, you get squished up into these

little buses or or subways like like

sardines and you know, you got to deal

with like people's bad breath or like

people's bo like some people smell bad

and people are coughing and spreading

viruses, especially in the winter.

Sometimes you get the homeless people

who are just like peeing on themselves

and just drooling

and and you know, god forbid you get

even like dudes who will just straight

up stab you, right? Like there's a lot

of violence on the subway. So public

transportation commutes are not ideal

either. Now, let's talk about costs.

When you have a car, you have to pay

gas, tolls, parking, repairs, and other

maintenance. And your car is a

depreciating asset, oil changes, and so

on. And when you have a public

transportation commute, you have to pay

for your train or bus fees. So, you're

going to eat costs no matter what. So

once you understand the stress, the

costs, the risks of having a commute,

you understand quickly why the studies

show that the length of your commute is

inversely proportional with your

happiness levels. And you should be

doing everything you can to reduce the

length of your commute. So when you ask

yourself at least for single people who

don't have a wife and a kid who they

want to you know be able to go to a good

school district for like a single person

who lives in a city for example it's

like why do you have such a long commute

from some trendy neighborhood to your

job that is suboptimal it just isn't

very strategic it's negative EV the

optimal way to commute is to live as

close as possible to work and I'll tell

you why there's just a lot of propaganda

from realtors and that whole industry as

far as like how cool it is to live in

some trendy neighborhood. And it's

incredibly overrated. You know, for

people who live in Chicago, for example,

there's this whole like uh flex by

saying you live in like Gold Coast or

Lake View or somewhere that's seen as

being more expensive or ritzy. People

think it's a flex. It doesn't matter as

much as you think it matters. Let's be

realistic. On weekdays after work, most

people are just going home and

vegetating on their couch and watching

Netflix and then ordering some food

through Door Dash or Uber Eats or

something. They're just too tired to

really be that social, you know. And if

this isn't you, then by all means, you

know, you don't have to apply this

advice. But most people who work hard at

work and have really good careers,

they're pretty tired on weekdays and

they just kind of do something chill at

home. So, you're really only being

social on the weekend usually. So, why

should you commute back and forth 30

minutes Monday through Friday when the

place you're commuting from when the

trendy neighborhood you live in, you're

only really making use of it on the

weekend? What you should be doing is

living right next to work. Even if it's

in some uncool downtown neighborhood

that it's like an office environment, it

doesn't matter. Then your commute from

Monday through Friday will be super

short. It'll be like a short 5-minute

walk-in commute. And then on the

weekend, if you want to do a reverse

commute to the trendy neighborhood to

meet your friends, that's when you can

do it. You save hours and hours a week,

which becomes hundreds of hours over a

year. You save time, money, and stress.

If you can't work from home, then

obviously you want as short a commute as

possible. Once the commute's super

short, it gets you thinking, can you

make it even shorter? What is the most

optimal shortest commute, which is no

commute, which is living at work? I've

actually done this before so I can share

my thoughts on it. When I worked at

Lockheed Martin, I decided I'm just

going to live out of my car in the

company parking lot and utilize the gym

at the office to shower in the mornings.

And there's a growing movement of people

who do this, especially in cities like

San Francisco, which are stupidly

expensive. There's a lot of tech bros

who just live out of RVs and go work for

Google. They're saving stupid amounts of

money because when they're deciding on

your total comp number, they're

factoring in the fact that rent and real

estate is so expensive in that area. And

suddenly, you're removing that from your

entire budget. You can find other

YouTubers and people who who do this.

They sleep out of their cars or they

sleep in RVs and then they just shower

at the gym or they shower in the office.

You trim down the commute to zero and

you trim down your rent expenses to

zero. It's an insane cost savings and

it's just adventurous and fun. I mean,

who wants to feel like some office drone

and just punch in and punch out and just

watch the years and the seasons go by?

Like, who wants to live like that? you

know, you're you're only on this earth

once and it just feels more exciting to

do something a little weird and, you

know, off the radar. You you suddenly

feel alive again. Like, you know, you

suddenly feel like the main character in

the story of your life again. Like, oh

I'm really doing this. This is

crazy, you know? And it's kind of fun to

like see how long you can get away with

it without people noticing, you know?

Like I I'd be the first in the office a

lot of times and people are like, "I

didn't even see you drive in. How did

how did you get here so soon?" and

you're just like giggling in your head

like, "Bro, I never left." And uh it's

kind of fun to like mess with people

like that. Um it's like a hack. It's a

life hack. So yeah, I really recommend

doing something like that. It really

keeps life interesting. And you know,

after you get away with doing that for

like a year, you you've saved like

$50,000. Now, there are actually firms

that already encourage this like Foxcon

or Cluey. You know, there's there's

firms where you actually sleep at work

and they combine the two. It's better

for productivity at work if you want to

be the man and just like kick ass there,

but then it just eliminates the commute

altogether. So, that's another way to

go. If you happen to work for a firm

like that, then you you'll just have no

commute. So, I would encourage that way

of thinking as well. So, yeah, guys, you

know, with the channel, I really want to

help people think outside of the box.

Don't be trapped in the comfortable

rhythms of life. You're never going to

be an extraordinary person or have an

extraordinary life if you do things in

an ordinary way, right? The extra and

extraordinary. You have to go extra. You

have to you have to get out of your

comfort zone and do things that are a

little bit weird in order to feel alive

again and and to really get ahead of

your your peers in terms of retiring

earlier or, you know, having extra

money. And so having this understanding

of how taxing a a commute is on your

life, you should be attempting a more

alternative lifestyle. And I hope you

take some of my recommendations to

heart. Here are the actual tangible

action items to take away from the

video. One, do anything and everything

you can to convince your boss to let you

work remotely, even in up to taking a

40% pay cut. because it's about looking

at the holistic equation of what makes

you happy and cost of living and quality

of life are big inputs to the equation,

not just total comp. And two, if you

can't work from home, try to minimize

your commute as much as possible all the

way up to finding a place to live right

next to the office or living out of an

RV or a van from the company parking

lot. you will save ridiculous amounts of

money and you can just find a girlfriend

that lets you sleep at her place every

now and then and be a moocher like that.

And it's just it's just a way better way

to live life. It's just way more fun and

exciting. So, let me know if you guys

decide to implement any of these action

items in your own lives. And uh let me

know if you disagree in the comments.

Take care.