Photo: Edited by Autoevolution
We’re not sure if you’re watching HBO’s comedy series called Silicon Valley. It focuses on six young men who found a startup company in the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. The show is structured as an inside view of the place that houses many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations, including Google.
The show's characters share a house none of them actually pays for. In real life, however, you’ve probably heard from different sources that rent in the Bay is not exactly what you call cheap. Traffic is also "quite" bad, as getting to work is often a stressful and long journey. These two reasons and a dream to backpack the world made this software engineer decide to live in an old Ford truck he paid $10,000 up front for with his Google signing bonus.
It may not come with some basic facilities such as shower or bathroom, but it’s the closest thing to his own dorm he ever got, apparently. It also makes for an excellent exercise of living cheap and simple. The 23-year-old Google employee who asked to remain anonymous is currently at his fifth month of living in the back of a truck and has been blogging his experience from day one.
"I don't actually own anything that needs to be plugged in," he explains on his blog. "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 battery pack that I charge up at work every few days, and I use that to charge my headphones and cellphone at night. My work laptop will last the night on a charge, and then I charge it at work."
A bed, a dresser, and a coat rack to hang up his clothes are the main things he uses on a daily basis while his only monthly expense is the truck insurance that is $121 per month. The phone bill is paid by Google, food and showers are also available on the IT giant’s campus. According to Business Insider, he eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work and showers every morning in the corporate gym post-workout. All these have helped him save up to 90% of his income after paying taxes.
Editor’s note: If you made it so far reading this post, I bet you’ll also check out the fellow’s blog; we think you could get inspired. About that, two things: first, once the word spreads out, Google will probably ask the guy to move his truck; secondly, don’t think living like that is as easy as it looks.
It may not come with some basic facilities such as shower or bathroom, but it’s the closest thing to his own dorm he ever got, apparently. It also makes for an excellent exercise of living cheap and simple. The 23-year-old Google employee who asked to remain anonymous is currently at his fifth month of living in the back of a truck and has been blogging his experience from day one.
"I don't actually own anything that needs to be plugged in," he explains on his blog. "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 battery pack that I charge up at work every few days, and I use that to charge my headphones and cellphone at night. My work laptop will last the night on a charge, and then I charge it at work."
A bed, a dresser, and a coat rack to hang up his clothes are the main things he uses on a daily basis while his only monthly expense is the truck insurance that is $121 per month. The phone bill is paid by Google, food and showers are also available on the IT giant’s campus. According to Business Insider, he eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work and showers every morning in the corporate gym post-workout. All these have helped him save up to 90% of his income after paying taxes.
Editor’s note: If you made it so far reading this post, I bet you’ll also check out the fellow’s blog; we think you could get inspired. About that, two things: first, once the word spreads out, Google will probably ask the guy to move his truck; secondly, don’t think living like that is as easy as it looks.
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