I have a very nice apartment in downtown Stamford. It's a really nice building and the location can't be beat. I can walk to any of a myriad of shops, restaurants and theaters.

It is, however, absurdly expensive. It's not that expensive for the area, I guess, but I just feel the fool dumping that much money away every month. For my New York readers, for what I pay I could probably get a studio walkup in Manhattan. I, however, have 900 square feet, 12 foot ceilings, a private fountain terrace outside my window and a laundry room. All of this just 37 minutes from Grand Central. It's pretty ideal, I guess.

However, I received a lease renewal notice today. It's not going up much, just $30 a month. It is chilling as hell, however, to see the annual rent expenditure spelled out. In just about four years of renting I could have paid off my entire mortgage in Atlanta. However, the average sales price of a home in Stamford is $590,000. No, I'm not kidding.

I may take some time to shop around and see if there's anything less expensive but equally perfect. I know the answer, there's not. One of my co-workers just got a new place and is paying about $400 less per month. The catch, however, is that he's about 20 minutes further north and about 40 minutes longer by train to NYC.

Life's all about trade-offs, I guess. I was miserable in Atlanta. I'm really happy here. I guess I just need to remember that every month when I see so much money go with literally nothing tangible in return.