That almost sounds impossible. Do you mind me asking what he did, driving for so many hours a day? At 150k a year, that amounts to over 410 miles a day, which is 6-10 hours of driving at normal speeds, quite a feat!
You're right! He commuted about 150 miles each day for a few years. I actually got the number wrong -- it was more like 75k miles a year. (I called him and asked, I thought he had that car for a shorter time than he actually did)
We moved after my dad and my mom got jobs, but he basically got laid off due to a restructuring on his first day. Due to some complications with pension/benefits, it was very expensive for him to go somewhere else, so he ended up going back to his old job.
I did know a few people who had extreme driving conditions. Our neighbor was an RFD postal carrier who had to drive a personal vehicle for delivery. His mileage wasn't extreme, but he replaced his brake pads monthly.
I have a co-worker who has a 4 day a week - 112 mile commute into work (Sacramento into Redwood City) - by avoiding rush hour he does it in a little over 2 hours each way, he puts almost 50,000 miles/year onto his vehicle. I thought that was the most insane soul crushing thing I had ever heard of.
Why does your co-worker do that? Redwood City, or even areas in the south bay are reasonably affordable, especially if you adjust for the cost of fuel and attrition from that commute.
I'm guessing family ties in the current location and then the abstraction of fuel use from fuel costs?
I complain about my 6km (4 mile) commute which takes about 10-15 minutes. Cannot fathom driving hours daily to do work. Even with ridesharing or podcasts or whatever else, that strikes me as a huge waste of life time.
He owns a house there, has family ties there, etc...
One thing I've noticed about many of my colleagues in California - when they get a new job, they don't move. Indeed, I've actually had colleagues who've changed the company they work at to reduce their commute, rather than just moving.
That seems odd to you? In the US, most people don't move around that much. This is certainly the case for people with families. I've been in the same house for 8 years and am in the process of moving across town - it's a multi-year process that's extremely personally taxing for my entire family, and we're only moving 2 miles away. I've had 5 jobs in the time I've lived in my current house, and my commute has ranged from 15 minutes (by car) to my current 1.25 hours (by train/bike), depending on the job. A major factor of choosing where I'm going to work is what it will do to my daily commute. I wouldn't consider moving for literally any job, but I wouldn't hesitate to change jobs so I could move.
As a family, perhaps. As a single person - I want a commute of 5 minutes or less, and when I get a new job - I always move. In the last 8 years I've lived in seven places - one of which was a Condo that I owned / sold.
I think the Prop13 issue explains why most home owners can no longer sell their homes.
When moving you're not just leaving a home behind, but (often) a social environment. Once there's family, you have to coordinate the move with their job/school/etc situation as well.
Switching jobs is the option with the least friction in those scenarios.
