RPF0699-Friday_QA-Should_I_Break_My_Lease_and_Live_in_My_Prius
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00:00:14.980 | It's Friday and today that means live Q&A.
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00:02:03.500 | We begin with Jeff in North Carolina.
00:02:05.580 | Jeff, welcome to the show.
00:02:06.380 | How can I serve you today, sir?
00:02:07.380 | Thanks, Josh.
00:02:09.740 | Just a couple of quick questions for you, mostly related to my current housing
00:02:16.220 | situation.
00:02:17.180 | But first of all, just appreciate everything you do.
00:02:20.620 | Been listening to you for a couple of years and definitely got a lot of value out of
00:02:25.100 | everything you're teaching, especially from the podcast, but also through some of the
00:02:30.860 | courses. So definitely appreciate everything that you do.
00:02:33.380 | Thank you. My pleasure.
00:02:35.780 | Sure. So first question related to my current housing situation, I'm in sort of a
00:02:41.780 | traditional lease.
00:02:42.900 | However, I did leave a kind of cushy corporate job about three weeks ago, but kind of
00:02:49.540 | within that time, but also previously been pretty inspired by some of the things from
00:02:57.420 | like early retirement extreme and also kind of some of the freedom things that you've
00:03:01.860 | been espousing on the show lately.
00:03:04.580 | And basically where I'm at is I have a buyout clause in my lease for my apartment.
00:03:12.100 | And basically what that means is with basically 60 days notice and two months rent, I'd
00:03:19.740 | be able to get out of the lease contract.
00:03:23.980 | And kind of on the extreme end of things, I was entertaining the idea of moving into my
00:03:31.780 | Prius, doing a little bit of stealth camping in the time being till I find the next best
00:03:37.460 | thing.
00:03:37.860 | I like it.
00:03:38.380 | Very nice.
00:03:40.180 | Absolutely.
00:03:40.860 | So kind of wanted to get your thoughts on obviously, and I know you've kind of mentioned
00:03:46.860 | previously, you know, doing, you know, sort of whether it be van life, life on the road.
00:03:51.940 | And also I know you've mentioned that Prius is for camping previously.
00:03:55.780 | So any cool advice you may have, just especially since you spent a lot of last year on
00:04:02.540 | the road, would appreciate any advice you have.
00:04:05.780 | So any additional details I can give you around the lease piece for your thoughts?
00:04:11.900 | Yes.
00:04:12.780 | But I would say I don't imagine that there's another financial planner in the world who
00:04:18.580 | has spent, let's see, I've probably spent between two to three weeks.
00:04:23.860 | So 14, somewhere between 14 and 21 days camping in a Prius on the road, stealth camping,
00:04:29.820 | camping all over the place.
00:04:30.980 | So I cannot imagine that there's another financial advisor in the world, or at least a
00:04:35.420 | credentialed financial advisor in the world who can say that.
00:04:37.660 | If there is, you write to me and let me know.
00:04:39.420 | But I got to imagine I'm the only person in the world that would have any insight
00:04:42.820 | whatsoever on this question from a personal experience.
00:04:46.380 | Tell me more about kind of what you envision with your trip and what you envision doing.
00:04:52.700 | A little bit about the dream or the plan.
00:04:54.620 | Sure.
00:04:56.180 | I mean, I don't, I mean, I'm not in a great financial situation at the moment.
00:05:02.260 | I have, I did have about, I was able to muster together about 10 grand after I left
00:05:08.300 | that job.
00:05:08.900 | So I have a decent cushion.
00:05:10.500 | So you have 10 grand in the bank right now?
00:05:12.500 | Correct.
00:05:13.740 | Yeah.
00:05:13.940 | And I have about, about 60 grand in consumer debt.
00:05:18.860 | I have been able to kind of, you know, control that a little bit.
00:05:24.020 | I put one of the larger personal loans on like a forbearance or whatever they call it.
00:05:28.740 | So it's not like a huge issue for, till I find, you know, some better income.
00:05:33.740 | So I guess what I'm getting at is the goal isn't necessarily so much to kind of get out
00:05:39.820 | and see the world as opposed to just kind of have a, a practical way of cutting my
00:05:47.460 | housing costs pretty significantly, just based on the fact that I already have the
00:05:51.900 | Prius.
00:05:52.540 | And I mean, but I would also love to do, you know, some of those things if there is
00:05:57.340 | an excuse to do so.
00:05:58.540 | So that's, I just wanted to say that that's not really the main focus, but it would be
00:06:03.620 | cool to do it as well.
00:06:05.140 | Do you have an idea of a job that you'd like to take or, or a business you'd like to
00:06:10.260 | start or some way to generate income at the moment?
00:06:12.220 | Yeah.
00:06:13.500 | My background is in kind of like sharing economy.
00:06:17.020 | I've done some work.
00:06:18.300 | I worked for a company that got acquired by Grubhub.
00:06:20.660 | You know, so sort of the management of independent contractors is sort of my, my
00:06:26.980 | background.
00:06:27.620 | And I would, you know, definitely be open to keeping up with that space just because
00:06:34.420 | it is pretty interesting.
00:06:35.540 | But, you know, definitely leery of, would prefer something that's as remote as
00:06:41.420 | possible, maybe a little travel required.
00:06:44.580 | But, you know, trying to stay out of the office sort of nine to five type environment
00:06:48.740 | where I came from, cause that was not great just because with a lot of my other
00:06:52.620 | previous roles, I had been pretty flexible with remote or travel type of
00:06:57.940 | arrangements.
00:06:58.620 | So you got 10 grand in the bank, about $60,000 of debt.
00:07:01.540 | Do you have any other, other than I guess the car, do you have any other really
00:07:04.660 | significant assets that they're investment assets, other real estate that you own?
00:07:08.780 | Nope.
00:07:09.940 | Okay.
00:07:10.540 | And what were you earning before you left the job?
00:07:14.500 | A hundred K.
00:07:15.420 | Okay.
00:07:15.980 | Do you think that it's realistic that you could get another position in short order
00:07:20.980 | earning six figures?
00:07:22.540 | I think short order, no, but definitely potentially, you know, 90 days maybe.
00:07:31.700 | But, you know, I mean, if I were to cut my housing costs basically to the bone, I
00:07:37.420 | could definitely, you know, you know, look for something, you know, 60 to 75 K would
00:07:43.180 | certainly be very doable for a solid lifestyle.
00:07:47.860 | And how much is your monthly rent currently?
00:07:50.780 | $1,100.
00:07:53.140 | So to break the lease, you'd be on the hook for about $2,200.
00:07:58.420 | Correct.
00:08:00.020 | However, just to kind of make that a little bit more clear, there would be 60 days
00:08:04.300 | notice, so it would be sort of like paying almost four months, but it would be sort of
00:08:10.260 | that 22 stroke after the 60 days.
00:08:13.500 | Okay.
00:08:14.380 | So, all right.
00:08:15.420 | So what you're saying is you would give them 60 days notice today, and then you
00:08:21.340 | would pay $1,100, $1,100, and then at the end of 60 days, then you owe $2,200.
00:08:25.460 | So basically it's about $4,400 that you're on the hook for right now.
00:08:28.380 | Right.
00:08:29.580 | Okay.
00:08:31.180 | How much time is left on the lease if you see it to fruition?
00:08:34.340 | December.
00:08:36.980 | So a while.
00:08:37.940 | Okay.
00:08:38.660 | Well, obviously that's a big chunk of money.
00:08:42.260 | And so before you do that, do you, have you read your contract to see if you have a
00:08:48.260 | clause against subletting?
00:08:49.900 | I'm not allowed to sublet, but the other sort of easier option that I had entertained
00:08:56.060 | was you can do like a lease takeover.
00:08:58.780 | So, you know, just go on Craigslist and, you know, see if somebody would, you know,
00:09:03.420 | we'll be looking for that sort of duration and, you know, that price range kind of
00:09:09.580 | thing.
00:09:09.900 | So that's something else I had thought about, but the Maya would be the worst case
00:09:13.940 | scenario.
00:09:14.340 | So let's talk about living in your car.
00:09:17.220 | It ain't great.
00:09:20.340 | And I think that's the first place to start with.
00:09:23.100 | It's great if you're doing something that you're excited about.
00:09:26.860 | So it's great if you're traveling, in my opinion.
00:09:29.940 | It's great if you're engaging in some adventure that you want to do.
00:09:34.620 | But if you're just staying in your hometown and you happen to be sleeping in your car
00:09:39.580 | at the local Walmart, that's not great.
00:09:41.580 | And it starts to wear on you over time.
00:09:44.660 | You start to feel a little bit like you're kind of on the edge of society just because
00:09:50.420 | of, and it's not necessarily due to anyone else's perspective.
00:09:56.380 | You know, does anybody know if you're even staying in your car?
00:09:59.820 | Well, of course, if they see you when you're parking at night, if you're, we're
00:10:02.580 | depending on where you're actually parking, certainly.
00:10:04.380 | But it's more a matter of, it's not normal to be out and about in society at all hours
00:10:11.260 | of the day.
00:10:11.740 | The normal situation is you're either in an office or you're at home working or you're
00:10:18.460 | at home in the privacy of your own walls.
00:10:20.420 | And so what wears on you over time is the feeling of, well, I'm kind of just always
00:10:26.420 | visible.
00:10:26.980 | You're never not visible to other people.
00:10:29.500 | And so you can never really relax.
00:10:31.220 | Now, that didn't come out right.
00:10:33.780 | You can relax, but it's just kind of weird.
00:10:36.140 | When you've been accustomed to the normal lifestyle, it's a little bit weird to be all
00:10:40.180 | of a sudden living in a car.
00:10:41.580 | Because what you'll find is, yes, can you sit in your car?
00:10:43.540 | Yes.
00:10:44.020 | And what you would do is you would get a comfortable chair and you would, you know,
00:10:49.180 | go to the local park and you would find some spots to hang out in.
00:10:52.060 | You would find some cafes to work in.
00:10:57.060 | You might go and start working at the local library with your laptop.
00:10:59.860 | But at the end of the day, it's still easy to feel this sense of unrootedness, this sense
00:11:06.700 | of just disconnectedness.
00:11:08.740 | And so the first thing that I would say is that I think it's better to, if you're going
00:11:17.780 | to live in your car, it's better to have a purpose that's beyond just simply, well, I'm
00:11:22.380 | doing this to save money.
00:11:23.620 | In a dire circumstance, can you do it?
00:11:27.060 | Yes, you can.
00:11:27.900 | But the reality is I don't think you're in a dire circumstance.
00:11:30.540 | You could, you have $10,000 in the bank, you could pay your rent and cover your
00:11:35.100 | expenses for a few months and then get another job and then pick back up where
00:11:39.420 | things were.
00:11:40.060 | And since you could do that, I think that you should consider doing that and have the
00:11:45.900 | living in your car thing as almost a thing of last resort rather than going ahead with
00:11:52.700 | a plan right away.
00:11:53.860 | Now, where I would change on that is if living in the car would allow you to do
00:11:59.140 | something that you were truly excited about.
00:12:01.140 | And by the way, let me ask, what part of the country are you living in?
00:12:05.180 | I'm in the Southeast.
00:12:08.060 | In the Southeast, OK.
00:12:09.980 | So it just, it depends.
00:12:11.860 | There's a big difference between the Southeast versus the West versus the
00:12:16.260 | Northeast in terms of how easy it is to do it.
00:12:18.460 | I camped in my car in the Northeast where I was hiding in a local park, sleeping at
00:12:25.700 | night.
00:12:25.980 | And it's just, it's hard because there's not nearly as many places to go and things
00:12:29.500 | to do.
00:12:29.900 | Now, if you're in a place where there's abundant government land, BLM land, things
00:12:34.860 | like that, where you can park and camp for free.
00:12:37.420 | If you're in a place where it's easy to do it at Walmarts and things like that, it's
00:12:40.740 | a lot easier than if you're in the middle of a big city in the Northeast.
00:12:43.980 | So that needs to come into play as well.
00:12:47.140 | So what I would say is the first thing you should do is if you're going to do it,
00:12:51.940 | think about doing it at least in the context of a trip.
00:12:54.540 | Because if you just decide today I'm going to go and camp in my car in your
00:13:00.940 | hometown, I think that by the end of the week you'll be back home.
00:13:05.380 | Whereas if you're on a trip, okay, well, now there's something you're seeing
00:13:08.140 | something new, you're doing something new, you're meeting interesting new people.
00:13:11.340 | And it's a little bit more, you have more of a reason for doing it.
00:13:15.260 | That's just my experience.
00:13:16.740 | If I were going to live in a car, if I were going to travel, traveling in a Prius
00:13:20.100 | is adequate and you get great benefit of being, having such great gas mileage that
00:13:24.100 | you can travel very comfortably and travel long distances as a single man.
00:13:30.180 | But if I were going to live in a car, I would not choose a Prius to live in
00:13:34.340 | because you just don't have anywhere to really relax.
00:13:37.060 | And so at the very least, if I were in a situation at the very least, I would buy,
00:13:40.700 | you know, a pickup and a truck camper or at least a van, something like that,
00:13:45.020 | where you can be in the vehicle and you can do things like cook in the vehicle,
00:13:48.140 | et cetera, without it being so weird and strange as a Prius.
00:13:51.340 | So that would be, that would be the first thought.
00:13:53.900 | Now, second thing would be if you have a clear goal of what you're going to, yes,
00:13:59.700 | the least comes into account.
00:14:01.340 | And so the first thing I would do today is I would start, if you're allowed to
00:14:05.340 | advertise for somebody to take over the lease, the first thing I would do today
00:14:09.980 | is I would start advertising for someone to take over the lease.
00:14:12.340 | There's no reason why you can't advertise for that.
00:14:14.300 | And you might find somebody willing, willing to do that.
00:14:17.660 | Even if you have to pay a little bit of money, let's say that your lease is
00:14:20.780 | 1100 and you tell someone I'll lease it to you for 900 and I'll make up $200.
00:14:26.420 | That of course would save you a lot of money as opposed to the $4,400.
00:14:31.060 | I would also look around my network and see, do I have any, you know, homeless
00:14:34.660 | friends or, you know, a brother or someone like that who could just come
00:14:38.580 | and crash with me on the couch?
00:14:39.860 | Is it technically subletting?
00:14:41.700 | It's kind of one of those gray areas, maybe technically, but if they, if you
00:14:46.020 | found someone that was willing to pay you $500 a month to stay in your place,
00:14:49.940 | then I think that you would find, you would find time, you would find it worth
00:14:55.500 | the effort to, you would find it worth the effort to stay in the apartment.
00:15:01.020 | Um, and then as far as the next step, I think the biggest thing is going to be,
00:15:06.060 | what are you going to do?
00:15:07.020 | Um, and that's, and going back to the car thing to try and answer your question.
00:15:10.180 | If you're going to get a job, I recommend you don't do the car thing.
00:15:14.300 | I recommend you go ahead and get a job because when you do the car thing, you'll,
00:15:18.380 | you'll feel like you're a little bit on the edge of society.
00:15:20.980 | It's very hard to stay feeling normal.
00:15:24.460 | Even if you get a gym membership and you shower at the gym and you get dressed,
00:15:27.940 | it just causes you to feel a little bit weird and it weighs on you and you're
00:15:31.300 | not at your best.
00:15:32.500 | Uh, and I've even learned this myself with regard to staying in places like
00:15:36.660 | cheap hotels.
00:15:37.500 | When I was younger and broker, I was always staying at whatever place was the
00:15:41.580 | cheapest.
00:15:42.420 | And I didn't understand why people would pay lots of money for a night in a hotel
00:15:47.380 | in order to, um, when they could buy something cheaper.
00:15:51.020 | Yeah, I got that.
00:15:51.860 | It was nicer, but I, I'm, I'm not to me.
00:15:54.660 | Niceness is, is not that big of a deal.
00:15:57.180 | I just don't have to have fancy luxury all the time.
00:15:59.740 | And I figured, well, the cheap places is, uh, is as good as anything.
00:16:03.380 | So why not save the money?
00:16:04.460 | Uh, and then what I learned is how I started to measure my productivity and my
00:16:09.940 | ability to actually get results.
00:16:12.940 | And I discovered that I really needed, uh,
00:16:16.380 | that I wasn't as productive in the cheap place that if I didn't have a good table
00:16:20.820 | and a good chair in my room, I couldn't get as much work done.
00:16:24.380 | And I remember distinctly, I was in, I was in Canada on a business trip and I was,
00:16:28.940 | uh, this was a few years ago and I was staying at a, I'd gotten a cheap hotel,
00:16:32.900 | but I didn't have, the desk was tiny and I didn't really have a place to set up
00:16:36.620 | and work and I lost a day of work.
00:16:39.180 | And I just said, that's it.
00:16:40.260 | I'm never doing this again from now on.
00:16:42.220 | Uh, if I'm going to travel, I'm going to stay in a proper business class hotel
00:16:46.900 | where I have a proper desk to work at because I'm just not as productive
00:16:51.180 | when I go to a coffee shop.
00:16:52.340 | I'm not as productive when I don't have a desk and a chair and an outlet and
00:16:55.820 | kind of the simple things.
00:16:57.140 | And the key is for me to be able to produce and to work.
00:17:00.820 | And so over the years I've stopped my, you know, extremely frugal ways just
00:17:07.780 | because I've recognized that if I, if I indulge those extremely frugal ways,
00:17:12.540 | yeah, I don't spend much, but I also don't produce anything and I don't make much.
00:17:16.580 | And so it's more important for me to be productive and my ability to produce
00:17:22.260 | value in the marketplace is far, far higher than what it costs me to stay at
00:17:27.380 | a business class hotel at, you know, $150 a night or whatever.
00:17:30.540 | And so it's basically that same concept.
00:17:34.580 | Um, but to the extreme, to the max with regard to staying in your car, is it a
00:17:40.060 | good way to go on an adventure on the cheap?
00:17:41.980 | Yes.
00:17:42.780 | But not if you're expecting anything out of yourself as far as to produce
00:17:45.980 | anything, not if you're expecting yourself to feel motivated every day to get out
00:17:50.660 | there and send out, um, you know, making calls and working on something and
00:17:54.140 | building a career website and, uh, uh, you know, it's not, it's not in that
00:17:58.980 | situation, it doesn't work in that situation.
00:18:01.100 | And so if you're going to use it for an adventure, then I say, go for it.
00:18:04.820 | If you're not going to use it for an adventure, I would say, stay in your
00:18:08.420 | apartment, um, where you, you already have the lease, try to find somebody who can
00:18:13.780 | come and stay with you for a time and use your ability to be in your, your
00:18:19.660 | apartment, to be productive and get yourself productive, whether that's to
00:18:23.340 | get another job, to do freelance work, to start a business, to do something.
00:18:27.540 | I don't think it's really possible for most people to, to be very productive
00:18:32.620 | when living in their car, uh, not at the level that you're accustomed to being
00:18:36.180 | productive at.
00:18:36.780 | Got it.
00:18:39.540 | Yeah.
00:18:40.020 | Yeah.
00:18:40.500 | I definitely appreciate that insight.
00:18:42.900 | I think the, the one thing that kind of stuck out at me was, you know, the, you
00:18:48.580 | know, just having kind of a plan and frankly, I just hadn't really thought
00:18:52.860 | about it maybe that much, just due to the fact that if I probably were to do a
00:18:58.020 | trip, it would probably necessitate having to, um, you know, have the lease
00:19:03.780 | taken care of just because it wouldn't be kind of a, an unnecessary burden to
00:19:07.460 | have going if I was going to be gone for a couple of months, um, to kind of have
00:19:12.020 | that, you know, that expense still there.
00:19:14.900 | Right.
00:19:15.260 | Um, however, you know, with the, the potential of getting that taken care of,
00:19:20.700 | you know, I definitely could see a trip, um, and, you know, getting excited about
00:19:25.940 | that trip.
00:19:26.420 | Um, and, but one other thing I would throw out there is having kind of been
00:19:31.700 | chained to an office for a couple of years, frankly, the, the excitement of
00:19:37.380 | some freedom, um, is sort of the exciting thing in itself for me at the moment
00:19:42.980 | that can sort of be the, the honey, the honeymoon phase, so to say at the moment.
00:19:47.300 | But, um, it's just sort of, you know, embracing the fact that, uh, you know, I
00:19:53.220 | can, um, you know, sleep in a little bit and, um, do things at my own pace and,
00:19:58.780 | you know, really just sort of explore, you know, what's, uh, what's on my mind
00:20:04.460 | that day.
00:20:05.020 | And, um, you know, that's been a very illuminating experience that was
00:20:09.740 | obviously sort of put to bed, you know, with, uh, corporate life.
00:20:13.900 | So what I, so to kind of compliment that, what I would say, what I would
00:20:18.740 | encourage you is consider using a trip, but then just be open to working on the
00:20:22.260 | road.
00:20:22.540 | And just to clarify you're single, not married, no children, no girlfriend, you
00:20:27.100 | know, romantic relationships.
00:20:28.260 | Correct.
00:20:29.700 | Okay.
00:20:29.980 | So good.
00:20:30.380 | So then that allows you to come and go as you like.
00:20:32.660 | And so what I would say is that consider using a trip, but head for a place where
00:20:36.700 | there's easy work, uh, and even work that may not be exactly what you're accustomed
00:20:41.500 | to, uh, you know, think about going to Texas and getting a job in the Texas oil
00:20:45.700 | fields or, or, or think about heading North and seeing what emerges along the
00:20:50.180 | way, because I, I resonate with that.
00:20:53.580 | Lack of wanting to be in the office.
00:20:57.420 | And I understand that.
00:20:58.420 | And so if you're at a point in your life where you've done that for a while, and
00:21:02.340 | now you're ready for something else, then just use a trip as a, as a, as a way to
00:21:08.820 | explore, um, you know, use a trip as a way to explore some other opportunities.
00:21:13.300 | What are the minimum payments, the minimum monthly payments
00:21:16.420 | on your debt at the moment?
00:21:17.820 | Right now we're looking at about, um, if I were to include that loan that I
00:21:24.340 | mentioned earlier, it would be about 1600 bucks, but without it, it's about 800.
00:21:30.140 | The loan would be for, uh, a refinance.
00:21:33.820 | I, um, tell me the details of the loan again.
00:21:35.820 | I missed that when you said it first time.
00:21:37.100 | Yeah, I'd say it's a personal loan.
00:21:40.300 | Um, it had been a refinance on some former credit card debt.
00:21:44.140 | Um, but I had put it into forbearance for about 90 days through April.
00:21:49.140 | Well,
00:21:56.420 | if you, if you feel a sense of frustration with the corporate world and
00:22:01.380 | you're not, and I, and I say to you, listen, Jeff, just go get another job.
00:22:04.780 | And you say, I don't want to do it.
00:22:06.380 | Then I would say that the Prius plan might be a good transition plan.
00:22:09.420 | If you have the ability to get rid of most of your stuff, uh, except, you
00:22:12.820 | know, the basics that you need, pack them in the car.
00:22:14.700 | Um, and they ask, have you, have you tried sleeping in the Prius?
00:22:19.180 | Have you, have you done any nights in the Prius yet at this point?
00:22:21.620 | I have a few times and it's, it's not bad.
00:22:25.380 | Um, you know, I definitely, it's hard to do in the middle of Manhattan, but,
00:22:29.900 | you know, you can definitely do it on a, in a quiet area.
00:22:33.420 | Well, if you're going to travel, so there's, there's the one way to do it
00:22:36.700 | was how I've done it, where you fold the back seat forward for the full, the
00:22:39.220 | front seat back, um, and just kind of make, do it in a makeshift way.
00:22:43.460 | That's adequate.
00:22:45.420 | But what I would say is if you're actually going to do it, do it properly,
00:22:48.620 | you know, even take out the passenger seat, um, build a nice sleeping
00:22:53.020 | platform that's comfortable, get some bins, you know, get organized.
00:22:55.860 | The key to being happy in that kind of environment is to be organized.
00:23:00.340 | You need to be organized.
00:23:01.300 | You need to have some basic camping gear.
00:23:03.580 | Uh, you need to have a butane cook stove, uh, some pot.
00:23:07.460 | Um, you need to have a cooler at the very least.
00:23:10.380 | It's probably the simplest thing to start with is a high quality cooler,
00:23:13.300 | maybe a soft sided cooler, um, like, but get the wall, get the
00:23:17.260 | Ozark trail rip off at Walmart.
00:23:18.780 | But like the soft sided Yetis, those are good.
00:23:21.980 | And then you can just get ice from time to time from a grocery
00:23:24.500 | store, uh, to keep your food in.
00:23:26.220 | But you need to have the, and then you comfortable chair, a little table.
00:23:29.620 | So that basically you can pull into a local public park and be comfortable
00:23:33.660 | setting up and using a picnic table and cooking and whatnot as well.
00:23:37.820 | So you're not eating out all the time.
00:23:38.980 | The thing that'll kill your budget is if you don't have the ability to cook
00:23:41.500 | and you're eating out all the time.
00:23:42.940 | So a simple butane stove that you can get at Walmart, um, a simple cooler to
00:23:47.900 | keep some cool foods, cold, uh, and, uh, base and basic camping gear and a nice
00:23:54.340 | chair and a table where you can be comfortable outside of the car I see
00:23:57.740 | are, are, are necessary and then work out a bed platform that works for you.
00:24:03.500 | So if you, if you take the, uh, depending on how tall you are, if you take the
00:24:06.780 | seat out, then you could, uh, put the front seat out, you could put a whole
00:24:11.060 | bed platform on the right side of it and not even need to put the backseat down,
00:24:14.780 | which gives you a place to sit inside the car, still in work in the seat.
00:24:18.220 | Um, or you can go with the backseat down plan.
00:24:21.460 | So YouTube is your friend there.
00:24:22.980 | Um, what I would do is if I weren't willing at all to go back to the
00:24:28.060 | corporate world, even for a time, and I think you shouldn't dismiss it too
00:24:30.940 | quickly, because is it fun to go on the road?
00:24:32.860 | Yes.
00:24:33.580 | Is it fun to go on the road when you got $60,000 of debt and 10,000 in the bank?
00:24:36.980 | Well, it's a lot less fun than if you were debt free.
00:24:39.700 | And so if you could get another a hundred thousand dollar a year job, um, a year
00:24:44.260 | from now you could be debt free.
00:24:45.540 | And so if you can stomach the plan to say, I'm going to get a, going to get
00:24:49.340 | another job, work for a year and, um, earn a hundred thousand dollars and be
00:24:55.300 | debt free in a year, it's going to be a lot more fun to do it when you're
00:24:57.820 | debt free than right now, if that's not a plan that appeals to you, I don't
00:25:00.980 | see why you have to do it.
00:25:01.900 | I would say go on a trip, um, break the lease.
00:25:05.860 | And even if you don't make the lease payments, that just simply becomes one
00:25:10.820 | more debt that you owe and you can pay it off when you can.
00:25:13.820 | Uh, I would not, I would not at this point, if I had $10,000, I would not at
00:25:18.660 | this point feel really good about taking 4,400, uh, and giving it to them.
00:25:23.300 | So I would either add that onto a credit card somewhere, finance it with a credit
00:25:27.100 | card, uh, so that I could stretch out the payments until I could get a job, uh, or
00:25:32.060 | just to have it as a debt that I owe and then pay it off in a few months when I
00:25:35.140 | get a job, uh, something like that to, to save my cash.
00:25:38.820 | And then I would head for a place that I'm interested in going and
00:25:41.260 | interested in checking out, and I would be open to and look for a job along the
00:25:45.420 | way, uh, and I would consider doing some kind of lucrative manual labor job, again,
00:25:50.180 | Texas oil fields or, or, or, you know, doing something up North, uh, just because
00:25:55.820 | it's an interesting way to have a change in your life, uh, that's different than
00:26:01.500 | the corporate environment.
00:26:02.500 | And you might find, you know what, I really liked the corporate environment
00:26:04.900 | after all.
00:26:05.420 | And if you do are doing remote work, you can do that from wherever you
00:26:08.620 | happen to wind up being, but a little bit of money coming in so you can get your
00:26:11.980 | debt cleared up over the next couple of years will also make any kind of
00:26:14.660 | traveling a lot more interesting.
00:26:16.020 | Yeah, absolutely.
00:26:18.860 | Um, I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of some of the, uh, um, you know, less
00:26:24.300 | common manual labor jobs like, uh, like that.
00:26:27.620 | So I think, uh, that's definitely something I would look into to, uh,
00:26:31.020 | potentially sustain it.
00:26:32.100 | You can make a lot of money in those fields and if you'll go where the work
00:26:35.900 | is, and I mentioned Texas just cause I was in Texas, um, not too long ago and
00:26:40.820 | was, was talking to some guys there.
00:26:42.380 | But if you go to a place like that, where the industry is, is, is booming.
00:26:47.740 | And if you're willing to do the work, I mean, it's not easy work, but I've
00:26:51.380 | always found, I've always found manual work to be easier to do than the work
00:26:57.500 | that I do, because all I got to do is show up and work hard.
00:27:00.380 | And that's always, I've been doing that since I was a kid, show up and work hard.
00:27:03.700 | It's a lot easier for me to avoid work when it's, when it's mental
00:27:06.220 | work, sitting in front of a desk.
00:27:07.540 | And the great thing about, about manual work is you, uh, you, you, you go to work,
00:27:16.420 | you do the work and then you leave.
00:27:17.780 | And when you leave the job stays there.
00:27:19.740 | And as a single guy, you have the ability to take all the extra jobs, to
00:27:24.660 | take all the different contracts.
00:27:26.060 | And there's so many opportunities.
00:27:27.580 | You can easily make six figures in one of those, in one of those jobs.
00:27:31.380 | And those jobs work well with a, with a frugal lifestyle, you know,
00:27:36.820 | it seems like sometimes it seems to me that half the guys that work in the
00:27:39.860 | Texas oil fields live in RVs and they do that because they need to live close to
00:27:43.820 | where they are and they need to move around for work, but it also happens to
00:27:47.060 | be a fairly frugal way to live.
00:27:49.260 | Uh, and so depending on how you do it, you know, there, there, you can work
00:27:54.220 | offshore, uh, or you're on the, you're on an oil rig for a couple of weeks at a
00:27:57.820 | time or a month on, or whatever the shifts are that they're offered, or you
00:28:00.980 | can do work on, but, but there are ways to make a lot of money in some of that
00:28:06.140 | kind of work.
00:28:06.820 | And, uh, I think you would find it refreshing to do some, some physical
00:28:11.740 | heavy labor.
00:28:12.500 | Um, it's, it's easier to do than the office environment, in my opinion, I
00:28:17.860 | would rather, if you gave me the choice between going back to a cubicle world.
00:28:22.900 | As a corporate drone versus going out and doing one of those jobs, uh, where
00:28:28.140 | I'm working with a team of guys out in the, out in the woods, uh, or out in the,
00:28:31.780 | the desert, I guess it'd be more appropriate.
00:28:33.620 | Uh, I would take the second option at this point.
00:28:35.860 | Uh, now you're going to, there's some downsides, right?
00:28:39.220 | West Texas is not the, the, the most attractive of places to live, but it does
00:28:45.100 | fit very well into an extreme lifestyle.
00:28:47.660 | If you went to a job like that, or went up to, you know, Alaska, or did, you
00:28:52.020 | know, find some place where you can make a lot of money, but you're going to a
00:28:54.780 | place where, where, uh, where workers are needed, you can live the early
00:29:00.900 | retirement, extreme lifestyle, live extremely frugally and four or five
00:29:04.980 | years later, you've got half a million dollars in the bank.
00:29:07.780 | Um, and.
00:29:09.340 | And now you have your freedom to go onto whatever's next.
00:29:12.740 | And so it's one of the fastest ways that I know of to, uh, to reach a
00:29:18.460 | significant level of, of, of freedom because you go to a high earning place
00:29:24.500 | with a low expenses and if you, and if you do, if you just don't drink all the
00:29:29.460 | time and blow all your money on stupid stuff, you can save huge amounts of
00:29:33.220 | money and very quickly buy your freedom.
00:29:34.940 | So that's, I would, I would be open to that if that appeals to you.
00:29:37.940 | Yeah, for sure.
00:29:39.980 | Any other, um, industries besides the oil fields, uh, ring any bells for you?
00:29:45.380 | It's a good question.
00:29:49.140 | I don't.
00:29:49.620 | And that's one of the first ones that, that comes to mind.
00:29:53.180 | And I've met people doing interesting work, uh, in that industry all
00:29:56.540 | over around the, around the, around the country.
00:29:59.100 | One of the things that I noticed is that that work, depending on the specific
00:30:04.340 | kind of work tends to be fairly, it moves.
00:30:06.740 | Uh, and so I've met people in Wyoming, in Idaho and, um, Texas, but at a campground,
00:30:17.060 | there's often at least a couple of people that are, their families are living in
00:30:21.980 | the campground while they're working on their jobs and so I've never really dug
00:30:27.060 | into it all that much, um, but that's so, so short answer is no, I don't have
00:30:32.380 | anything else that would be where I would start, but I would bet if you, if
00:30:35.780 | you went looking and started asking questions and did intense research on
00:30:39.420 | that, that there might be other options that would emerge along the way.
00:30:42.340 | That's the best I got though.
00:30:43.540 | Um, the other thing I guess would be seasonal work.
00:30:46.380 | Um, if you're open to doing seasonal work, here it is February.
00:30:49.500 | So just an example, if you went up to the far North, uh, you know, even Alaska
00:30:54.140 | and got yourself some seasonal work, uh, during the summertime up in Alaska, you
00:30:58.260 | could get there pretty inexpensively in your Prius, um, then you can do the kind
00:31:02.780 | of thing where you work like, like crazy for, for four or five, six months, and
00:31:07.100 | then you take the winter off and there are all kinds of opportunities
00:31:09.660 | where that could work out.
00:31:11.220 | Uh, I don't know specifically what they are right now.
00:31:14.100 | When I was in Alaska though, I did, I did meet people that did that and you, and
00:31:17.580 | you see that people will go back, go up and go back and forth.
00:31:20.380 | And so you have the opportunity to do seasonal work if you're willing to
00:31:23.740 | relocate, uh, and you can just simply go where the work is, uh, and, and where
00:31:27.500 | you're, where you're paid the most during the summer.
00:31:29.340 | Got it.
00:31:32.420 | Yeah.
00:31:32.700 | It makes sense.
00:31:33.420 | Um, cool.
00:31:35.660 | Yeah.
00:31:36.060 | I definitely appreciate the insight on, uh, you know, thinking
00:31:38.780 | about, uh, some new industries.
00:31:40.540 | Good.
00:31:40.980 | Anything else?
00:31:43.740 | Um, what about just sort of, if I were to deem the Prius, you know, not, uh, um,
00:31:53.140 | you know, not acceptable for kind of long-term living, do you have any, um,
00:31:57.660 | any insight on kind of what maybe a good next step would be?
00:32:01.780 | I mean, my Prius is pretty new.
00:32:03.340 | It's probably worth 10 grand private, private sales.
00:32:07.140 | So, you know what I mean?
00:32:08.100 | I feel like you can do a lot with that, with something
00:32:11.220 | else a little more comfortable.
00:32:12.220 | Yeah.
00:32:12.620 | For a single guy, I would buy, um, either a pickup truck and a truck camper or,
00:32:19.860 | uh, a small or an SUV or a pickup truck and a trailer.
00:32:24.700 | And this would depend a little bit on the kind of work that
00:32:27.300 | you imagined yourself doing.
00:32:28.580 | I think one of the best ways to, one of the best, um, Lifestyles is a, is a
00:32:36.700 | pickup truck and a truck camper, uh, because it's, they're inexpensive.
00:32:41.380 | Uh, there, you can buy them inexpensively.
00:32:43.980 | You don't need anything fancy.
00:32:45.460 | So if you sold your Prius for 10 grand, you could certainly get yourself a, uh,
00:32:49.260 | a pickup truck and a truck camper for 10 grand and, uh, and they're comfortable.
00:32:55.020 | And unlike the Prius, they allow you to set up and not feel like, uh,
00:33:00.740 | not in to feel at home, right?
00:33:02.900 | You have a table inside that you can sit at and you can work at.
00:33:05.940 | You have a proper bed that you can relax in.
00:33:08.460 | Uh, you have a stove, you have a sink.
00:33:11.060 | You have water tanks.
00:33:12.100 | You have those things that make it possible for you to live comfortably.
00:33:15.820 | And so I like the, the flexibility of a pickup truck and a truck camper.
00:33:19.700 | Uh, it's one of my favorite ways to do it.
00:33:22.420 | The only downside of a pickup truck and truck camper is that it's not quite as,
00:33:29.340 | uh, is, is if you need to drive a lot, if you need to drive your truck.
00:33:33.340 | So like the oil guys, let's say you were going to go work on the oil field.
00:33:36.700 | Well, you wouldn't want to pick up truck and a truck camp, or you'd want to pick
00:33:39.180 | up truck and a small, uh, travel trailer, because you're going to be need the
00:33:42.700 | truck for work and you're going to leave the trailer parked.
00:33:44.740 | Uh, and I think that that also is a good solution.
00:33:47.740 | The travel trailers around you might be even cheaper, which would be a better
00:33:51.780 | way to start, uh, where you just have a few thousand dollar pickup truck and a
00:33:55.140 | few thousand dollar travel trailer.
00:33:56.820 | You could certainly do that.
00:33:58.380 | And then now you have the ability to live comfortably.
00:34:03.060 | You can have an actual trailer.
00:34:05.220 | And so you're going to feel a lot more.
00:34:06.380 | So give me an example.
00:34:07.740 | When you're trying to, when you're trying to camp and live in a vehicle, one of the
00:34:11.860 | first things is, well, where am I going to be?
00:34:13.620 | Where am I going to be during the day?
00:34:14.660 | I'm not gonna be driving.
00:34:15.460 | So where am I actually going to be?
00:34:16.660 | And if you're in a Prius, it's hot.
00:34:19.700 | The best that you can do in a Prius is to sometimes be in the car, but the best that
00:34:24.220 | you can do in a Prius is to pull up to a picnic pavilion where you have a table to
00:34:28.700 | work on a bench, you can set up a comfortable chair, and then you have a
00:34:32.540 | place to cook.
00:34:33.180 | You have a place to be, you have a place to hang out, but you're always exposed to
00:34:36.980 | the weather, even in that circumstance.
00:34:38.780 | And the weather, what you find is that the weather can start to wear on you.
00:34:43.540 | Sometimes it's very hot.
00:34:44.740 | Sometimes it's very cold.
00:34:45.740 | Sometimes it's windy.
00:34:46.620 | Sometimes it's rainy.
00:34:47.460 | Sometimes it's sunny.
00:34:48.220 | It's sunny.
00:34:48.940 | And you just want to get out of the weather sometimes.
00:34:51.220 | And so when you, when you go ahead and move up a level to a trailer or to a
00:34:57.220 | camper, or you could do a van.
00:34:58.780 | I also, obviously people do vans, but when you move up a level and you have the
00:35:03.340 | ability to get out of the weather, it's really nice because now what was that
00:35:06.860 | hot, loud, or cold, windy, loud rest area picnic table becomes just your camper
00:35:14.020 | that you're parked in, that you're in the rest area for, for the day.
00:35:17.220 | And you can work on your computer.
00:35:18.860 | You can do whatever you want.
00:35:19.860 | You can read, you can relax, and you can get out of the rain.
00:35:22.260 | You can get out of the wind.
00:35:23.220 | And that's, that's really nice.
00:35:24.820 | And so it's worth, it's worth it to have that.
00:35:28.060 | If you think that you're going to do it for, for a longer period of time.
00:35:31.300 | It's really nice to have that ability.
00:35:33.340 | So I would shop both of those, go look at some options and see.
00:35:36.700 | Uh, the truck camper can technically be taken off of, uh, a truck and put on the
00:35:42.100 | ground, certainly you can do that, but it's a lot bigger of a hassle than a,
00:35:46.100 | than a small trailer.
00:35:47.300 | And so if you were going to work and you were going to go on the road and you're
00:35:50.300 | going to be open to working, I would say probably a pickup truck and a small
00:35:54.100 | camper and you need, you don't need something big, uh, the, the, the smaller
00:35:57.860 | you are, the better, uh, and you can get, um, inexpensive.
00:36:01.300 | You should, you should be able to find a travel trailer for a few thousand
00:36:04.260 | dollars and a pickup truck for a few thousand dollars, and that would be
00:36:07.260 | enough to get you on the road.
00:36:08.260 | Sounds good.
00:36:10.540 | Anything else?
00:36:13.540 | I think, uh, no, I think, uh, we've, uh, exhausted it.
00:36:17.460 | Good.
00:36:18.220 | Well, um, I hope that you will have greater clarity and wisdom.
00:36:21.620 | I just encourage you use the money that you have to get yourself started.
00:36:25.500 | It is when you got $10,000 in the bank, it's easy to make a transition like you
00:36:30.980 | are making, because you can float your bills for a little while you can float
00:36:35.580 | your bills and, and generate some income along the way, but you still only have a
00:36:39.820 | few months of, um, few months of, of wiggle room.
00:36:43.540 | Uh, and what I would say is as quickly as you can, um, as quickly as you can
00:36:49.980 | look for a way to earn some income, live frugally and get your debt paid off.
00:36:55.300 | Because if you can go from having $60,000 of debt and no income to having
00:36:59.780 | $0 of debt and no income, you're going to have a very different
00:37:03.540 | experience with those two things.
00:37:05.060 | So if you want to make a transition, you can make a transition when you're in debt,
00:37:08.460 | but it's a lot easier when you're totally debt-free and a lot more fun.
00:37:12.220 | Absolutely.
00:37:14.500 | All right, Jeff, thanks for calling in and I wish you all the best.
00:37:17.220 | That's it for today's Q and a show only had one caller today.
00:37:20.460 | So I would invite you next week, call in and go to patreon.com/radical personal
00:37:24.900 | finance, sign up to support the show on Patreon and join me for next week's Q and
00:37:28.380 | a call patreon.com/radical personal finance.
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