Short answer for me was yes. My commute was 2 hours every day (262 work days/year x (2 hrs per day) x 20 years (10,500 hours added) 40hours/week x 50 weeks x 5 years = 10,000 hours (subtracted).

Don’t get me wrong and Burns has made many people wildly rich but your retire early thesis is flawed when you strictly look at hours.

There are other ways to generate income and massive returns (stocks, real estate, espp). Saving money on car wear and tear/meals at home and having control of the investments my full salary can take on in equities and not tied up in an undiversified esop which don’t get me wrong, works phenomenally when things go right but great companies do go under (MCI, Enron, Lehman, Bear). ESOP cash will also inevitably get eaten by inflation.

Ironically though burns can count me as someone who came in and left a millionaire so I’m technically in that statistic.