Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 38 posts

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#21

Post by transverse »

deckar01 wrote: post #19
transverse wrote: post #15

This is not so easily done in a cold or hot climate where air-conditioning or heating are needed. It is the reason why most people outside of the SV bubble can't do it.

You would need to buy a refrigerated truck to pull this off in the south.

Yes, and a heated+refrigerated truck for most of the north. It would be unacceptable to have the engine running the whole time. I think it's doable in theory with a truck that has giant electric batteries, e.g. a Tesla Powerwall or two. Maybe a specialized RV cwould have it.

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#22

Post by T2_t2 »

transverse wrote: post #21
deckar01 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would need to buy a refrigerated truck to pull this off in the south.

Yes, and a heated+refrigerated truck for most of the north. It would be unacceptable to have the engine running the whole time. I think it's doable in theory with a truck that has giant electric batteries, e.g. a Tesla Powerwall or two. Maybe a specialized RV cwould have it.

Or a diesel generator. But that's an ongoing vs capital cost question I guess.

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#24

Post by jonmb »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #20
toomuchtodo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can live on $24k/year from $600k in invested assets. With mandatory health insurance, its income tested, not means tested; living on $24k/year means a family's premiums will be heavily or fully subsidized (under current ACA law). > In summary, I doubt that one can retire early with any comfort off of a decade of decent earnings. It can be done. "A Brief History of the ‘Stash: How we Saved from Zero to Retirement…

This guy and his wife are making $160k gross in 2003, and that's on the fifth year. I plugged that into a .gov inflation calculator just now and got $216k equivalent today! Some numbers are omitted, but they're nearing $200k by 2004 and certainly clearing it by 2006. Then when he "retires" he's pulling 50k with a side business? Everything about this is misleading.

Root of Good did it too with a modest income compared to Mr. Money Mustache.

http://www.rootofgood.com

Lots of people have done this successfully, making use of the "4% rule". Though it's always helpful to have a fun side income.

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#25

Post by ocdtrekkie »

jrockway wrote: post #10
marsrover wrote: post #9

I'm not sure I'd want information like this public. Doesn't seem safe.

I doubt he keeps his savings in the truck, and very few people are going to risk going to prison over stealing a bed and dresser.

And his truck's parked in a Google parking lot. Where you can assume almost every inch of pavement is on camera. This is probably, disclosure included, one of the safest places to live in the US.

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#27

Post by lucaspiller »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #16
lucaspiller wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Becoming rich (assuming it’s not handed to you by your parents) isn’t about how much you earn [0], but about how much you save. If you earn $120k/year, but only spend $20k/year, after five years you will have half a million in the bank. The hard part is convincing yourself (and your family) that you don’t need to go that resturant or you don’t need that new car. Obviously younger people have the advantage here, as th…

I hate to split hairs, but you'll take home about $80k on a $120k salary, so the plan you've proposed would require over eight years of slumming it, not five. More on topic, imagine that you try to retire with $500k in the bank at 35. Even if you're willing to slum it at $20k/year for the rest of your life, you'll only make it to 60! And that's ignoring the elephant in the room, inflation. With mandatory health insur…

Please don't take what I said too seriously, it's not meant as "life advice you should follow to the T". It was merely intended to provoke a discussion about an alternative to the way most people deal with personal finances.

As I mentioned, there are plenty of people who practice 'financial independence' who have done this before, what I'm saying is nothing new. Early Retirement Extreme [0] is a good introduction to the subject. Mr Money Mustache [1] is a bit less extreme. These are still rather extreme examples though, so no not everyone will be able to retire in 5 years, but a lot of the advice they can follow, and at least save up an emergency or investment fund of a decent amount.

I think it's irresponsible and dangerous to live paycheck to paycheck, and take on mountains of debt just to buy something you don't really need, but plenty of people do that every day.

[0] http://earlyretirementextreme.com/about-the-blog

[1] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

Re: A Google employee lives in a truck and saves 90% of his income (2015)

#28

Post by Kuiper »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #25
jrockway wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt he keeps his savings in the truck, and very few people are going to risk going to prison over stealing a bed and dresser.

And his truck's parked in a Google parking lot. Where you can assume almost every inch of pavement is on camera. This is probably, disclosure included, one of the safest places to live in the US.

From this guy's perspective, the biggest risk of publicizing his living situation is that maybe someone on Google's legal team learns about it, decides it's a liability concern, and kicks him out of the lot.

The article is from 2015 so kind of moot at this point.

Post reply on HN