Why a Google Engineer Lives Inside a Ford Box Truck
What would you think if, without any other context, I told you I knew a person who lived in a box truck in a parking lot? How would you view that person? My guess is that there’d likely be a tinge of judgement. Maybe you’d assume that person didn’t have his or her life in order.
Now what if I told you the same exact thing but specified that the person is a Google employee? That subconscious perception might slightly change course and partially turn into intrigue. This is the path a 23-year-old named Brandon has chosen in San Francisco, where he’s not saving thousands of dollars by sacrificing a bit of convenience and comfort.
As an intern for the tech world-dominator Google, Brandon was paying approximately $2,000 a month. With $22,434 worth of student loans hovering over him at the end of his school years, that type of expense simply didn’t make any sense to him. So, when he accepted a full-time gig and moved to San Francisco, he purchased a 2006 Ford box truck with 157,000 miles for $10,000 and is now paying only $121 per month for car insurance. How’s that for managing a budget?
“It’s really hard to justify throwing that kind of money away, he told Business Insider. “You’re essentially burning it — you’re not putting equity in anything and you’re not building it up for a future.”
But where’s the bathroom you might ask? Showering? Kitchen? Simple: Google’s campus has all of the amenities he needs, so he essentially just sleeps in the truck and lives out the rest of his day a few feet from where the truck is parked. Twenty-four-hour access FOR THE WIN. All the truck has is a bed, dresser, clothes rack, and he recently added a bike rack, as detailed on his blog. A simple life for a complex kid.
Via [Business Insider]
