It’s 2am and I Can’t Sleep

Hello Barefoot,

I am typing this at 2am -- I cannot sleep. My husband and I have a household income of $200,000 and have three small kids -- but we never see them, as we work in the city and live 60 kilometres away. The three-hour daily commute is taking its toll on us all. The house is great, and affordable, but a long way from work. Yet moving to a house big enough for all five of us that is close to the city would put us into mortgage stress. We are stuck -- what do we do?

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

Do you want the money or the box?

On one hand, a study from a university in Sweden found that relationships where one partner commutes longer than 45 minutes are 40 per cent more likely to end in divorce.

On the other, Deakin University Emeritus Professor Robert Cummins and his team have found that financial insecurity (read: mortgage stress) produces similar feelings to that of physical torture.

And you’re stuck in the middle!

Or are you? You see, it may not feel like it -- especially at 2am -- but you do have choices.

You can choose to ditch your commute and seek out jobs closer to home -- even though they’re likely to pay less. (Perhaps one of you could try this option while the other continues to commute.)

Or you can choose to spend less, and spend more time with your young kids. This is what I’d work to if I were you.

Besides, the proof is in the pudding: the Australian Wellbeing Index has repeatedly shown that people living in regional Australia (Woop Woop!) are among the happiest people in the country.

Happy travels.

Scott