Google employee lives inside truck on campus to save money

[Fire&Blood]

When 23-year-old Brandon S. headed from Massachusetts to the Bay Area in mid-May to start work as a software engineer at Google, he opted out of settling into an overpriced San Francisco apartment. Instead, he moved into a 128-square-foot truck.

He graduated with $22,434 worth of student loans, and has paid it down to $16,449 over the course of four months. "As a conservative estimate (and taking bonuses into consideration), I expect to have them paid off within the next six months, saving thousands of dollars over the standard 10-year, or even 20-year plans," he says.

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-truck-in-parking-lot-2015-10

 

[AznAnarchy99]

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-truck-in-parking-lot-2015-10

I don't get it.. He's only paid off $6k in 4 months living out of a truck? I pay $1000 a month on mine with a room and a BMW car payment. I'm pretty sure he makes more money than me working at Google too.

 

[master_shake_]

biggest thing in that article.

no a/c no bathroom.

is it hot in san francisco at night?

also where to take piss in the night?

 

[OverVolt]

biggest thing in that article.

no a/c no bathroom.

is it hot in san francisco at night?

also where to take piss in the night?

Doesn't matter. Get a gym membership and use the shower and locker room. Save that money at that age, cause he is going to need it later.

 

[Ns1]

10g's and he bought a box truck? couldn't even find a used RV wtf

I don't get it.. He's only paid off $6k in 4 months living out of a truck? I pay $1000 a month on mine with a room and a BMW car payment. I'm pretty sure he makes more money than me working at Google too.

Additionally, saving on rent has allowed him to dine at nice restaurants

Dude must be hitting up TFL every week.

 

[OverVolt]

10g's and he bought a box truck? couldn't even find a used RV wtf

Pfft save every dollar man.

I bet he even has a celeron in his computer.

*GASP*

 

[Fire&Blood]

biggest thing in that article.

no a/c no bathroom.

is it hot in san francisco at night?

also where to take piss in the night?

From his blog:

How do you go to the bathroom at night? Do you just pee in the woods?

As cool as it would be, my life is not an episode of Man vs Wild. I do have 24 hour key card access to any building on the campus that I work at, so I could use the facilities in there if I really needed to, but thus far it's just been about planning. I try not to eat or drink anything after about 7:30 PM, and I wash up and go to the bathroom right before I head out to the truck at night. When I wake up in the morning, I ride my bike to the gym and go to the bathroom there.

Where do you, like, shower and stuff?

I've mentioned this one in an earlier post, but my employer has showers and gyms on campus, mainly because a lot of people bike into work and need to shower off so the office doesn't smell like a frat house. So every morning, I wake up nice and early (around 5:30 AM), ride my bike to the gym, work out, shower, and start my day. While I could skip the gym and go straight for the showers, I feel like that would look strange. Even if I got passed that, keeping that regimen of working out every day is a good habit to be in.

Don't you get lonely out there?

The fact of the matter is that I'm hardly ever in here, except to sleep. I'm working until 5 or 6 PM, and then hanging out with friends or working on personal projects until 8:30 or 9 PM. When I'm in the box, I'm either writing these posts or getting ready for bed. The whole point of this experience is that a bed was the only part of a house that I needed, so if I was in here all of the time, I'd be doing it wrong.

How much money are you saving?

A really cheap apartment in the Bay Area (and I'm talking really cheap), would be about $1,000 a month, bare minimum. So over the course of four years, I'd be paying (again, bare minimum here) about $48,000 in rent, and have nothing to show for it. No physical property, no equity, nothing. After taxes, the truck cost me $10,000, plus about $750 a year for insurance. Let's also factor in the cost of gas. Assuming it gets about 10 miles to the gallon, and I drive it about 25 miles a week (I don't really drive it much at all), that's 2.5 gallons a week, and 130 gallons a year. On a pricier week, gas is $4 a gallon, so that's $520 a year. So $10,000 + $750 * 4 + $520 * 4 = $15,080. So for a super conservative estimate, I'm saving about $33,000 over the course of four years. That's just the raw minimum savings, I'll be investing approximately 95% of all of my post-tax, post-401k, post-benefits income. I've mentioned many times that it isn't about the money, but clearly this living situation makes my future plans much more flexible.

Have you ever been caught?/Where do you keep the truck?/What happens when you get caught?

In the week and a half that I've been doing this so far, I haven't had anyone approach the truck while I was in it or question me or anything like that. I keep it parked at the edge of an open-air parking lot on my employer's campus. If security were to come by, I doubt it would be a big issue. I've registered the car with the company vehicle database, so they know it belongs to an employee, and I've read stories about people at very similar companies having short conversations with security, and then never being bothered again. I'm not very worried about it right now, but if security does come knocking, I'll let them know that I work there. Worst case scenario, they aren't happy and they ask me to leave, at which point I get a membership at the RV parking lot down the street.

What do you do for electricity?

I don't actually own anything that needs to be plugged in. The truck has a few built-in overhead lights, and I have a motion-sensitive, battery-powered lamp I use at night. I have a small (15,000 mAh) battery pack that I charge up at work every few days, and I use that to charge my headphones and cell phone at night. My work laptop will last the night on a charge, and then I charge it at work. As I mentioned in a previous post, I could get a solar panel/power bank for real AC power, but I just don't even know what I would use it for right now.

 

[Ns1]

Also, this guy isn't new or anything

http://www.businessinsider.com/employees-who-live-at-google-2014-9

 

[manly]

biggest thing in that article.

no a/c no bathroom.

is it hot in san francisco at night?

also where to take piss in the night?

SF is rarely ever hot at night, but Google is in Mountain View which does get warm during the summer months.

I suspect his math is wrong though, I mean the assumptions are based on that he's going to do this for 4 whole years. While not impossible, that doesn't sound very likely if he's pulling a typical Googler's salary. He doesn't have to rent an expensive apartment, he could probably rent a bedroom within commuting distance for under $1k per month.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

SF is rarely ever hot at night, but Google is in Mountain View which does get warm during the summer months.

I suspect his math is wrong though, I mean the assumptions are based on that he's going to do this for 4 whole years. While not impossible, that doesn't sound very likely if he's pulling a typical Googler's salary. He doesn't have to rent an expensive apartment, he could probably rent a bedroom within commuting distance for under $1k per month.

Or get a roommate.

 

[master_shake_]

Doesn't matter. Get a gym membership and use the shower and locker room. Save that money at that age, cause he is going to need it later.

From his blog:

SF is rarely ever hot at night, but Google is in Mountain View which does get warm during the summer months.

I suspect his math is wrong though, I mean the assumptions are based on that he's going to do this for 4 whole years. While not impossible, that doesn't sound very likely if he's pulling a typical Googler's salary. He doesn't have to rent an expensive apartment, he could probably rent a bedroom within commuting distance for under $1k per month.

ah. i see.

 

[lxskllr]

Or get a roommate.

I'd rather live in a truck than have a roommate. I wouldn't mind living in a truck anyway. I'd trick out a box truck into a microhouse. It would be a sweet pad.

 

[brianmanahan]

Pfft save every dollar man.

I bet he even has a celeron in his computer.

*GASP*

celerons were a sick joke

 

[NoTine42]

I don't get it.. He's only paid off $6k in 4 months living out of a truck? I pay $1000 a month on mine with a room and a BMW car payment. I'm pretty sure he makes more money than me working at Google too.

Is it possible he also paid for his $10k truck in those 4 months?

 

[manly]

Or get a roommate.

yeah but it's been established that he's a cheap bastard.

A 2 bedroom around MV is probably around $3200 monthly so in his view (and mine), he'd be flushing a lot of money down the toilet per month. Having said that, chances are that he could easily afford it.

What he's doing to save money isn't illogical but I doubt anybody working at Google would choose to do this for any longer than about a year.

 

[kage69]

I'd rather live in a truck than have a roommate. I wouldn't mind living in a truck anyway. I'd trick out a box truck into a microhouse. It would be a sweet pad.

I hear that.

Behold the Shaggin Wagon!

 

[irishScott]

Seems completely unnecessary given the average Google salary. I'm all for efficiency, but there is a point of diminishing returns. I'm glad this guy seems satisfied with his decision, but it's kinda like the guy who makes over 100k a year, has no family, and still eats top ramen in the name of saving money. Some people just get stuck in an infinite conservation loop and never enjoy life, even when they have more than enough resources to do so. Kinda sad really.

 

[waffleironhead]

The real question is: what kind of garbage can does he have?

 

[Ns1]

Seems completely unnecessary given the average Google salary. I'm all for efficiency, but there is a point of diminishing returns. I'm glad this guy seems satisfied with his decision, but it's kinda like the guy who makes over 100k a year, has no family, and still eats top ramen in the name of saving money. Some people just get stuck in an infinite conservation loop and never enjoy life, even when they have more than enough resources to do so. Kinda sad really.

uhm, sounds like that dude has #yolo money because he doesn't have to blow it on rent.

If I was in my low 20's working at Google, I'd have the sickest van down by the river.

 

[irishScott]

uhm, sounds like that dude has #yolo money because he doesn't have to blow it on rent.

If I was in my low 20's working at Google, I'd have the sickest van down by the river.

What do you do for electricity?

I don't actually own anything that needs to be plugged in. The truck has a few built-in overhead lights, and I have a motion-sensitive, battery-powered lamp I use at night. I have a small (15,000 mAh) battery pack that I charge up at work every few days, and I use that to charge my headphones and cell phone at night. My work laptop will last the night on a charge, and then I charge it at work. As I mentioned in a previous post, I could get a solar panel/power bank for real AC power, but I just don't even know what I would use it for right now.


How do you go to the bathroom at night? Do you just pee in the woods?

As cool as it would be, my life is not an episode of Man vs Wild. I do have 24 hour key card access to any building on the campus that I work at, so I could use the facilities in there if I really needed to, but thus far it's just been about planning. I try not to eat or drink anything after about 7:30 PM, and I wash up and go to the bathroom right before I head out to the truck at night. When I wake up in the morning, I ride my bike to the gym and go to the bathroom there.


How much money are you saving?

A really cheap apartment in the Bay Area (and I'm talking really cheap), would be about $1,000 a month, bare minimum. So over the course of four years, I'd be paying (again, bare minimum here) about $48,000 in rent, and have nothing to show for it. No physical property, no equity, nothing. After taxes, the truck cost me $10,000, plus about $750 a year for insurance. Let's also factor in the cost of gas. Assuming it gets about 10 miles to the gallon, and I drive it about 25 miles a week (I don't really drive it much at all), that's 2.5 gallons a week, and 130 gallons a year. On a pricier week, gas is $4 a gallon, so that's $520 a year. So $10,000 + $750 * 4 + $520 * 4 = $15,080. So for a super conservative estimate, I'm saving about $33,000 over the course of four years. That's just the raw minimum savings, I'll be investing approximately 95% of all of my post-tax, post-401k, post-benefits income. I've mentioned many times that it isn't about the money, but clearly this living situation makes my future plans much more flexible.

Yeah, this guy's really living it up. I know I shouldn't judge people with different priorities, but he's strictly limiting his diet, schedule, entertainment and social opportunities for the sole purpose of indulging his commitment issues and saving an extra <10% of his salary per year. Doesn't sound healthy to me. I also hope he never gets a stomach virus.

 

[jingramm]

It seems very unnecessary

He owes only $22,434 which is chump change, especially on a Google software engineer salary.

 

[Ns1]

Yeah, this guy's really living it up. I know I shouldn't judge people with different priorities, but he's strictly limiting his diet, schedule, entertainment and social opportunities for the sole purpose of indulging his commitment issues and saving an extra <10% of his salary per year. Doesn't sound healthy to me. I also hope he never gets a stomach virus.

All I see is this:

Additionally, saving on rent has allowed him to dine at nice restaurants

cuz the 1400-1800 he's saving each money in rent is a lot of michelin stars.

 

[irishScott]

All I see is this:



cuz the 1400-1800 he's saving each money in rent is a lot of michelin stars.

I'm pretty sure on a Google Engineer's salary he doesn't have to live in a truck to eat at plenty of nice restaurants. Plus eating at nice restaurants for every meal is really inefficient. It means you have to endure traffic, wait-times and service times for every meal. By comparison I can cook some cheap, tasty chicken breasts on the stove in about 10 minutes including prep-time. Apparently this guy's time isn't worth much, or his only passion in life outside of software and living dirt-cheap is being a lazy foodie (because real foodies cook their own ). He states he's saving/investing 95% of his take-home money. If most of that 5% is fancy food, well...

 

[brianmanahan]

cuz the 1400-1800 he's saving each money in rent is a lot of michelin stars.

that's kind of pointless though

i save like 4$k per month and never ate anywhere that cost more than 25$

 

[jpiniero]

Yeah, this guy's really living it up. I know I shouldn't judge people with different priorities, but he's strictly limiting his diet, schedule, entertainment and social opportunities for the sole purpose of indulging his commitment issues and saving an extra <10% of his salary per year. Doesn't sound healthy to me. I also hope he never gets a stomach virus.

He works at Google though. 80 hour work weeks doesn't leave that much of "entertainment and social opportunities" time anyway, and it seems that most of that is eating out.