The Cost of Having a Great Life

“The enemy of a great life is a good life” Rene Suhardono

I just moved back to Jakarta after spending 8 months working in Makassar. I did have a choice whether to move or stay, since the company wasn’t just order me to move. And I decided to move back not mainly because of the new position offered, but rather due to the fact that my family live separately from me here in Jakarta.

For the last 8 months I was commuting between Makassar and Jakarta on the weekend, at least 3 times per month. The arrangement was quite costly, but working in area office has their merits.

For a start, Makassar is a big city, but not big enough for you to spend an hour traveling from 1 point to another. In fact the traffic is moderate it takes no more than 30 minutes to go from one corner of the city to another. The other one is the work pace. When you say working 8 to 5 it usually really means 8 to 5. It leaves you with enough leisure time to finish reading on average 4 books per month.

Don’t forget, Makassar is by no means less ‘civilized’ than Jakarta. I mean, wifi hotspots, 21 cineplex, McDonalds, Carrefour, Gramedia, hang out places, cable TV networks… all the good things in life. Oh, one more thing: the food is good.

To summarize: enough time for leisure + good entertainment facilities = a good life.

Now consider the trade off. First, of course the time I could spend with family and friends. Every month I could only spend: 3 times x 2 days (Saturday & Sunday) x 24 hours = 144 hours. They cost around Rp. 2 millions (ticket price Makassar-Jakarta vv) x 2 = Rp. 4 millions, since each month I have one regular business meeting in Jakarta. Another thing, I have to spend approximately Rp. 2 millions each month for my cost of living.

When I decided to move back to Jakarta, I assume all things being equal + more time with family & friends + less cost of living = a great life. In my calculation this translates: a great life > a good life, hence: move. It takes only 3 weeks to prove my assumptions were wrong.

First assumption: all things being equal. Like most of the economic students eventually realized, it is the most unrealistic assumption one can make. Why? Because it grossly over simplifies. How fool I was to think the newly opened toll access will shorten my travel time to the office. True it takes no more than 15 minutes once you’re in the toll to reach the office, but to reach the toll itself takes more than 45 minutes. On average I spend more than an hour to go to / from the office, sometimes more. Ah, the story of your life my fellow Jakartans, but it’s a cultural shock for me and I need to re-adapt myself to Jakarta’s traffic. After all in Makassar it takes only 15 minutes to get to the office.

Second, the assumption that I could spend significant more time with my family and friends. Turns out, due to my job, I have to spend more time in the office than I thought I should. I like the new job, don’t get me wrong, but it demands long work hours and require me to attend meetings—lots of them. As a result, in typical work days I can only see my family early in the morning and in the evening, an hour top. So ends up I spend less significant more time with my family as it was before when I still working in Makassar: mostly in the weekends. To be precise, I spend [4 times x 2 days (Saturday & Sunday) x 24 hours] + [4 times x 5 workdays x 1 hour] = 212 hours.

Let’s not discuss about leisure time for myself. As a comparison I can only finish reading 1 book in this tightly scheduled 3 weeks. And it’s in bahasa Indonesia, so it doesn’t really count, because in general I finish 300 pages in my mother tongue faster (approximately 5 hours) than the same book in English.

Now let’s compare both choices:

a) Living in Makassar: A Good Life
(1) Upsides: a convenient work pace, more leisure time for the good things in life (books, movies etc.)
(2) Downsides: less friends + no family, only 144 hours per month to spend with them
(3) Cost: Rp. 6 millions per month

b) Move to Jakarta: A Great Life
(1) Upsides: more time for friends + family, approximately 212 hours per month.
(2) Downsides: hectic work pace, almost no time for the good things in life.
(3) Cost: Negligible

Leaving the qualitative part aside, I can conclude that the opportunity cost of having 68 more hours with family and friends is exactly Rp. 6 millions + 3 books to finish. Somebody told me that time for family and friends is priceless. Yeah, right.

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