One way I’ve gained time in Retirement is by eliminating (Yes!) my daily commute.

How much time? Morning commute: about 30 minutes. Afternoon commute: 40 minutes.

That’s 70 minutes per day/round trip; 350 minutes per week. That’s nearly 6 hours—almost one work day—minus lunch and breaks.

Subtracting yearly vacations etc., that’s 45 extra days per year.

According to the latest US Dept., of Commerce, Census Bureau Statistics, published in 2015, I was one of 139,786,639 American workers (minus 4.3% work-at-homers)  in 2013 who traveled to work.

Like the vast majority (76.3%) of those Americans, I commuted alone in either car, truck or van. (For me, that would be car!)

From what I could glean from the latest Census data, in so traveling, I spent a little more than the average (mean) commute time traveling to work, with the average clocked at (25.5) minutes., and my average 30 minutes.

Could have been much worse. 7.6% of my fellow travelers spent 45-59 minutes commuting to work, and 6.9% spent more than one hour. Whew!

(Curiously, there were no return commute statistics. Sometimes I admit being tempted to just stay at work, but I did return each day–as I’m guessing did most, if not all, my other 139,786,638 fellow workers (minus 4.3% work-at-homers), who are fellow commuting Americans.)

Now that I know how much time I’ve saved—earned through retirement—I need to commit to myself to spend it wisely.

Curious to know how your saved commute time compares with other Americans’? Check out:  US Commuting Data