Hey, a relevant article to me. I ride the metrolink from the same station she used to ride from. I have a 35 minute drive to the Riverside metrolink, and I take it down to Orange, another 55 minutes. This is about to expand to 1 hour and 15 minutes when my work moves its office to Irvine.

My typical day, I wake up at 4am, drive to Riverside to do some crossfit from 5:30-6:30, and hop on the train at 7am. I get to the office shortly after 8am. Fortunately, I leave around 4pm and am usually home by 6pm. I tend to work on the train, but I can use that for side projects or leisure when I feel like it.

After 5 years of doing that, I shifted to working in the office usually 3 days a week, and then remote the last two days of the week. It really has helped.

Why do I do it? I really love where I work. It is fantastic. I also really love where I live in the mountains of SoCal. My coworkers have a hard time wrapping their head around dealing with wildlife like bears and things like ice and snow in the winter :). Many also can't process that my mortgage is under half of what they spend on an apartment (that they split with a roommate). My wife is a part time crossfit coach and full time mother, doing home school with our two youngest kids.

I've thought about moving close to work, but housing is just so expensive there. Counting commute costs, I would have to spend 4x on a mortgage in the city. I would like to do things like save money for my future and eat healthy foods. So I stay where I'm at. And I'm happy.