We recently moved to a new place — again.
It was the financial cost and the stress surrounding the daily commute to the office that was to blame. (Work is now hybrid, and we have to be on site for most of the week.)
Also, having two different work shifts almost 12 hours apart meant we had to spend double. It wasn’t sustainable for the long term. And for the last two years we were already comfortable having no “Transportation” category in our budget…
So we packed up and moved.
It didn’t take long before I realized the life-changing benefits of living a mere 10-minute brisk walk from work:
Daily exercise is now organic to my professional life. I get my 8,000-step daily goal just by showing up to work. This also helps me to sleep much easily at the end of the day.
I get to take lunch at home and save a hundred pesos of what I would’ve spent on cafeteria food.
If my Internet connection gets wonky (it does happen, unfortunately), I always can just take the short walk to the office.
I already mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating that omitting daily transportation costs (whether Grab or gas) is such a money-saver.
And did I say removing the daily stresses that a commute entails is such total bliss? There’s no longer any need to be anxious about whether I could get a Grab ride in less than 10 minutes — or two hours.
I do recognize that we are quite privileged to be able to do this, and we are deeply grateful everyday. But if you have the chance to live closer to work, oh please do get it, the perks are plenty.
Daryl Zamora 