The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't consider it except for my wife.
Really? You honestly can't fathom why some people might desire their own, private space, away from their work environment, where they might, I dunno, live their life outside of their day-to-day drudgery?
I'm not even sure how to react to that. It's such an alien way of thinking, I simply can't relate to it... it's baffling.
I mean, the minute humans formed fixed communities instead of hunting and gathering, we've been driven by the need to build public and private spaces in which to live. Questioning that need is questioning one of the founding tenants of modern human society...
Hell maybe apartment buildings should accommodate things like this instead of just having a gym/pool included
I agree, but you do have to admit that $2k-$3k per month is a huge trade-off, especially considering how little you're actually going to get for that money.
Would you prefer to spend the same money on a shitty, expensive apartment now, or a nicer, cheaper house later?
I could leave my business clothes at work, 3 pairs of pants and 5/6 business shirts. At the end of the week I dry clean it as needed. I can shower at work and I have all the entertainment I could possibly need on my laptop.
If I had a convenient and dependable car and safe overnight parking I would DEFINITELY not pay rent. Oh yeah I'd have to lose the girlfriend too of course...
There's private space to live in his van, there's no problem there, yes he too wants a private space to live in like the rest of us. The difference is the van does not provide a box around him unlike the 2-3k box.
These two lifestyles are not merely incompatible but imcompossible. What you describe sounds to me like living like a drone - as in, an actual bee.
There you go. It is not in our nature to optimize for efficient use of money. There are other desires that will outwit this including the desire to reproduce, the desire to fit in socially, the desire for space and boundaries, the desire for inertia.
I used to think about living in a camper van to 'protest' against ridiculous house prices and paying rent. I never quite wanted to do it, and mainly because of what other people would say. Of course some people have the guts to be daring and different :-)
If you could save $75k of the $135k salary, you could go a very long time living in a van in somewhere like South Dakota.
I'm sure it's somewhere up there, but I see this as more of a compatible lifestyle choice than a suffer-in-the-short-term-then-cash-out scheme.
Doesn't this beg the question: Why would you suffer such an unreasonably irrational wife?
http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/
If the Elio [1] can retail for $6,800 new, it's not a stretch to imagine a modern minimal camper-motorcycle/tuktuk/scooter for under ~$20,000... models for countries with less regulatory requirements like India or Asia regions might have much less expensive versions.
There are ford/dodge van campers but they're cumbersome compared to the slimmer Volkswagen Westfalias and similar early Toyota TownAce models. Westfalias have a much larger userbase and parts aftermarket though.
I don't know about college students in the US, but German students live pretty cheap in shared flats. I pay 350 Euro for my share of an inner city Wilhelminian apartment house. It goes down to maybe 200 Euro. I can't see this to be a bigger problem in developing nations.
I'd consider those mobile homes for the mobility though..
One that I'm thinking of even has a full commercial kitchen that you can use (for extra money).
Yes. I want to leave the office. I want to have my own space, where I can do my own thing. I want to have a place where I can cook my own meals, and raise my plants. Possibly a pet.