How did I start living in a car?
By Joe
how to you go shower/pu?
will it be smelly?
parking?
How did it start? I grow up in Taiwan and never really heard or meet people lived in car or RV. After I got to US I'm shooked how car dependent it is. On a trip to Europe, I landed in Miami for 1 night and wait for a flight to Paris. Innocent like me book a airbnb that night, new and no review (Never book an airbnb that has no review and new list). When I arrive around 10pm, the co-host showed me my place was taken. That area is pretty scary, loud music keeps playing till midnight. I don't know what to do and called the host, he agreed to refund (but didn't!). I end up sleeping on the floor that night.
After coming back from Europe I rent a toyota prius C to see if I can sleep in a car. Surprisingly I slept well! Eventually bought a 2012 Toyota Prius and started to sleep in car when I drive out of town. And the adventues begins.
Why do you choose to live in car instead of living in house?
- tired of living in house
- I barely go home
- I want to find a place to invest in real estate
us is too big, hugh parking lot
The noise ioslation for a American wood house is poor. Whenever I lived in a 2 story house, I can hear someone upstair clearly or people downstair will complain even if I move too big. Since people have different sleeping time it always annoying when I went to sleep but the roommate/neighbor still awake and making noise.
After I started living in car and street parking at night (or outside planet fitness), I barely hear any noise. You might need a custom mattress but the annoying late night noise disappeared.
When I lived in an appartment near University I barely go home. All the interesting things happened in University. I do meal prep so I just cook once per week and pack my food. If I only go home to sleep/sex living in a car doesn't make any difference.
Since I work in tech, I have spared money to invest. I know I will buy house so I get a real estate class and passed the real estate exam thinking about saving commission by buying for myself. But I am relatively new to US and I haven't been to most of the states so buying a house without explore different markets doesn't make sense to me. Living in car and stay in a new cities every couple months allow me to know the city and the people, which I think will benefit for choosing a place to invest in real estate.
Are you going to buy a house?
Is it safe? If you don't feel safe sleeping in car in night in an area, you won't feel safer sleeping in a house.
What do you do with the money saved? After living in car, I started to notice the concept of personal development budget. For the extra 500-1000 I saved, I don't want to save it in bank or buy stocks. I'm a semi-minimist so not interested in buying physical items. I want to use these money to improve my skills and building connections. I realize when I do meal prep it's a tendency to eat alone cause I just need a microwave to heat up my lunch. But I found that successful people will block their calender for lunch, business or social. And I'm also thinking about buying people free lunch as long as I could learn something from them. I feel the money I made in my 20s is probably ony tip of iceberg of my life, so I should probably invest the money I have in my 20s to learn from mentors and do more experiments.
How do you work? I just work in public library or University library. Personally I like University library more, safer and more young people.
What's your future plan? Meet mentors (real estate specificaly), start business while living in car.
The transition of living in car happened gradually after small experiments like living in car while traveling. I create a checklist for you to help you get used to living in a car.