Originally Posted by
eddubal
It is cheaper, otherwise i probably would have moved closer to work in Yonkers. From what some of the local guys say, it's either expensive or crappy, not much in between.
I believe all trains have a bike blackout during rush hours, but you can take full size bikes at other times. While working at a studio in Long Island City, I found that my train commute and driving in the morning were approximately the same, however driving home took me twice as much time than mass transit. I dropped the car really quick. I live close to a train station and the studio was close too (easy to do) so my walking time was less than 15 min. It was nice to not have to drive!
Right now, I have about 50 minutes by car or about 2-1/2 hours by mass transit. needless to say I take the car. The worst part of it is the GWB. I'm starting to look for a parking lot that I use in Fort Lee and ride the rest of the way into Yonkers. I'll have to scope that out one weekend.
In any case, Jersey might be a good fit. Definitely look into it.
I know a few people here who commute from NJ, I'll pick their brains. While riding my bike to work is nice it would be a fair trade-off for living in a cheaper, nicer place. I will most definitely not attempt to drive to work. It's either PATH, bus or the bike
6 week paid holidays is a good start. See if you can take a few extra weeks off during a slow period unpaid. If you can score say another 3 weeks off you can now take a 4 week tour, a 3 week tour and a 2 week tour each year. Add in some weekend tours and you are doing pretty good.
If you want even more time off see if they will okay a job sharing arrangement and find someone else who wants to work 6 months of the year.
Personally I think the smart move is to keep a high paying job if you can because each hour you work is worth so much more. If you can be frugal you can save a lot of that money. Then you just need to increase your holiday time to meet your needs. The problem with a low paying job is you'll have to work so many more hours to make the same $$. Now if you love the low paying job and hate the high paying job maybe that makes sense, but for example I worked retail in an outdoors store making $10/hr....it wasn't hell, but it wasn't super fun either. I worked a lot and was tired when I was off. It was hard to save any $$ at that wage. I'd rather make $50/hr and work less or work the same hours and save a lot more.
I can take 2-3 months unpaid leave next year, plus my regular vacation time, I've already asked. So if everything goes well, I may fulfill my dream of riding across USA next year. It's the first step. Next, I'll see if I can negotiate some extended unpaid leave every year from now on. I'm an employee in good standing and I'm respected by the administration and researchers (my "users") so I hope they will agree to that.
Next step will be to move out of the city to make weekend getaways easier while still keeping this job.
And I'll take it from there. If I come across a job at some other university in a different state (I like working with researchers, I don't want a corporate job) I may jump on it. But, one change at a time. Maybe it is indeed mid-life crisis and I'll get more stable eventually
Adam