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23-year-old Google employee lives in a truck in company's parking lot, saves 90% of his income
Business Insider ^ | 10/20/2015 | Kathleen Elkins

Posted on 10/20/2015 12:09:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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.

The idea started to formulate while Brandon — who asked to withhold his last name and photo to maintain his privacy on campus — was interning at Google last summer and living in the cheapest corporate housing offered: two bedrooms and four people for about $65 a night (roughly $2,000 a month), he told Business Insider.

"I realized I was paying an exorbitant amount of money for the apartment I was staying in — and I was almost never home," he says. "It's really hard to justify throwing that kind of money away. You're essentially burning it — you're not putting equity in anything and you're not building it up for a future — and that was really hard for me to reconcile."

He started laying the groundwork for living out of a truck immediately, as he knew he'd be returning to work full time in San Francisco. A school year later, he was purchasing a 16-foot 2006 Ford with 157,000 miles on it.

It cost him an even $10,000, which he paid up front with his signing bonus. His projected "break-even point" is October 21, according to the live-updating "savings clock" he created on his blog, "Thoughts from Inside the Box."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: california; google; rent
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To: SeekAndFind

“It’s been five months so far, and I don’t see it stopping soon for any reason,” he says.

*****************

It now may stop sooner than he thinks. I’m surprise anyone would allow him to camp on
their property like this. Now that it is out the camping may come to a halt.


41 posted on 10/20/2015 12:54:28 PM PDT by deport
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To: SeekAndFind

In my home town, during the real estate bubble craziness somebody rented a one of those U-store storage spaces and made it into a comfortable home. I wanted to write an article about him for the local paper. But it turns out what he was doing was against about a dozen laws and if anybody found out he would, at the least, be kicked out. I don’t remember all the laws, but there was a certificate of occupancy, sanitation and water (don’t recall how he did this) and property is classified and taxed by use. You can’t stay in commercial property unless it is classed and taxed as habitable. The list of violations is endless. Doubtless some of them will require jail time as so many ordinances today do. All of this comes down to collecting taxes and fees. Nobody is allowed to violate them because if they allowed it once can you imagine what would happen to parking lots in San Francisco?


42 posted on 10/20/2015 12:56:22 PM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: exnavy

Used motor homes tend to be very high maintenance.


43 posted on 10/20/2015 12:58:40 PM PDT by BBell
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To: Resolute Conservative

What happens when he gets locked in from the outside?

*****************

I guess he could call one of the ten guards and asked them to bring some
bolt cutters and cut the lock for him.


44 posted on 10/20/2015 12:58:55 PM PDT by deport
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To: TalonDJ

The price to hook up an RV could be as much as rent. We were considering that for our college daughter and the place to leave the RV would have cost as much as a cheap apartment. I can only imagine in San Fran


45 posted on 10/20/2015 12:59:04 PM PDT by outinyellowdogcountry
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To: Gen.Blather

It would have been okey-dokey if he posted an Occupy Wall Street sign over the space.

;>)


46 posted on 10/20/2015 1:01:28 PM PDT by Covenantor ("Men are ruled-...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: outinyellowdogcountry

The USA is hard on it’s youngin’. Especially the untrust funded and not socially connected.


47 posted on 10/20/2015 1:02:05 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: catbertz

Plenty of great used RVs

Yes but probably cost more than $10,000 and RV would attract police who would most likely enforce the strict RV ordinances every community has. His truck would fit right into almost any commercial area or workplace parks like Google.


48 posted on 10/20/2015 1:02:35 PM PDT by Joan Kerrey (The larger the government, the smaller the people)
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To: 21twelve

Key West used to have small junky houseboats tied up around the island in the mangrove areas. They even had electric service. I think the local pols chased them out a few years ago. Heartless homosexual Democrats, they are.


49 posted on 10/20/2015 1:03:25 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: exnavy

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=rv+vehicle&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1311.R1.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=rv+recreational+vehicle+motorhome&_sacat=0


50 posted on 10/20/2015 1:04:59 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Does anyone remember Gonzo Gates from the Trapper John show?

Also, Elon Musk lived in his office when he first moved out there.


51 posted on 10/20/2015 1:10:05 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: cuban leaf

[I suppose he could park it in a residential neighborhood, on a different street every night.]

He could park in a Walmart parking lot.


52 posted on 10/20/2015 1:13:41 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.)
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To: SeaHawkFan

i was thinking “along the lines” of what sort of mischief might be directed at the truck and its owner


53 posted on 10/20/2015 1:14:03 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><> GO CRUZ!!!!)
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To: tanknetter
OPSEC Fail.

Definitely. I should have said his original idea was good but he will either be tracked down now or multitudes of google bots will try the same thing leading to increased scrutiny and probably a ban.

I know Palo Alto cracked down on homeless sleeping in cars at Cubberly Community Center but I think Mountain View plays Sergeant Schultz and says "I see nothing."

54 posted on 10/20/2015 1:22:00 PM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: SamAdams76
I moved out when I was 18, went to work for the railroad. Lived in this caboose down at the yard for a while, saving money to put myself through engineering school:


55 posted on 10/20/2015 1:33:02 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Noumenon
Yeah - that's the perfect pied a terre for that occasional Waffle House waitress pickup.

Hey, that's what HER place is for.

56 posted on 10/20/2015 1:35:05 PM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: catbertz
Plenty of great used RVs in that price range with better insulation and social acceptance factor.

Maybe ordinances forbid living in RVs in that locality but don't mention trucks?

57 posted on 10/20/2015 1:37:14 PM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“What if he has to go to the bathroom??”

That all depends on his mindset/political persuasion. If he’s an Occutard type, he’ll prolly just walk to the nearest neighboring yard. It’s what the homeless in Berkeley and Frisco do. Homeowners in some areas need pooper-scoopers, but not for pets....


58 posted on 10/20/2015 1:37:30 PM PDT by Carthego delenda est
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To: SeekAndFind
It's probably not hard to imagine that this guy working for Democrat-party-loving Google in San Francisco, votes Democrat too.

So what he is doing here violates Democrat/Socialst ideals. The young comrade should be condemned for this.

He is attempting to save money for himself instead of donating it to the greater good (as determined by leftist politicians).

(Perhaps Google can correct this by confiscating all the money he is trying to save and then giving it to homeless people.)

But he is on the right track with living in the truck though-All young people who vote Democrat and want "income equality" should be given trucks to live in-that's all the space they need (according to to the multibillionaire leftist politicians, and business people speaking to us from their mansions).

He's so selfish-Since Democrat-Party-Supporting Google provides free stuff for him-He really should just work for them for free-for greater good. (/S)

59 posted on 10/20/2015 1:41:50 PM PDT by Pajamajan ( Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: JimRed

That assumes that her place is an improvement.


60 posted on 10/20/2015 1:49:43 PM PDT by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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