7 ms·

I Had $100k in Debt So I Moved into My Car

28 points by pards 2y ago

mobilio 2y ago
I wondering isn't possible for that person to move temporarily to his parent's home? Before attacking me - i live in Southern Europe and most of children's here still living with parents or grandparents. I even know a house nearby where there are living 4 generations in one house.
- mmierz 2y ago
  This is addressed in the article
- infecto 2y ago
  "...and my parents, who live nearby, would have gladly taken me in. But I wanted to treat this period as a challenge, to prove to myself that I could accomplish hard things. Around that time, I was following a YouTuber.." He artificially induced the situation.
  - 3D30497420 2y ago
    Yup, as a sort of social media/TikTok experiment.
    - mobilio 2y ago
      I understand that experiment... but just wondering. For example - we live 100 km. from mine parents, wife parents are 200 km from us. Mine brother live with parents. Wife brother live near their parents - 10 km. and visit them almost daily. In Southern Europe - it's OK. For Northern Europe it's not normal - there children leave home early.
- batch12 2y ago
  An "influencer" inspired him to do something he could write about. > and my parents, who live nearby, would have gladly taken me in. > Around that time, I was following a YouTuber named Michael Hickey, who made videos showing how he lived frugally out of his car. I decided to do the same thing.
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  Moving in with your parents post college shouldn't be a badge of shame in this era of real estate shortage/inflation, college superinflation, health care costs, decades of wage suppression, lack of college-education jobs. Europe is ahead of the US in terms of urbanization and postindustrial economic structures, where real estate has long been totally owned by the elites. The US is moving towards a similar state with the arrival of massive private equity buyups of real estate.
  - infecto 2y ago
    > The US is moving towards a similar state with the arrival of massive private equity buyups of real estate. This feels a little untruthful. PE and other investment vehicles are of course investing in multi-unit buildings (apartments) and have been part of some of the new rental communities that have been built out but they represent a small blip in the SFH side of real estate. The biggest shift in my opinion has been the creation of rental SFH communities backed by investment vehicles but again these are being newly built so at worst they have possible short-term impact on builder supply. I am not sure how that impacts the landscape though, new builds are adding to the rental stock.
    - Schiendelman 2y ago
      Private equity is a total red herring. Their impact is virtually zero. The issue here is that we restrict new housing from being built in thousands of ways - meaning the people who would be buying that housing (the ones buying houses today, to live in) are buying old stock instead, driving up the price of a supply constrained good. This is entirely the fault of land use codes - setbacks, parking minimums, FAR limits, design review, height limits, years long permitting processes... we created this in our local governments.
      - infecto 2y ago
        Agree but unfortunately when you point this out usually you get downvoted to oblivion. It is a supply demand problem and I would even add to the point that the financial crisis helped set us up for the current environment we are in. We are still not even close to the historical level of housing starts pre 2007-08. We lost a number of builders in that process.
dvh 2y ago
[flagged]
- gotts 2y ago
  don't blame the player blame the game
- infecto 2y ago
  The issue with some college programs is that they focus more on getting students to pay for degrees than on preparing them for the future. While I believe colleges can be extremely valuable, many of these programs are lacking. Part of the problem might stem from how student loans are treated differently than other types of debt, without properly accounting for risk. It makes me wonder if there’s data on how many graduates from a given degree program actually enter a field related to their studies. With that kind of information, it might be possible to better assess the risk associated with student loans. Loans are just one part of the equation, but they’re a critical one. Edit: In case it was not clear, I am arguing that the formula here is entities who are incentivized by churning students through programs and loans which are not being properly underwritten. Student loans should not be a special class of debt. We have gone over the line of improving upward mobility and created an industry that produces useless degrees with high debt loads. If student loan could be discharged easily via bankruptcy and the underwriting process could potentially reject applications based on risk, it might be easier to help funnel people through. Instead we allow young people to take on $30-50k for a masters degree that has little to no chance of being useful.
  - themaninthedark 2y ago
    A collage degree is not a jobs training program, it is a is supposed to give you a deeper understanding of the fundamentals in a field of study. Just because some employers require a degree(or equivalent experience) for some jobs, it does not guarantee that you will get that job. An example would be Electrical Engineering, with this degree you could do work in a power plant or design cheap kids toys(or anything in between). What you want to do is up to you and you need to chart your own course. If you want a program that trains you and then gives you a job that you have received training for, the military is famous for that. However, don't expect that the job training that you received will necessarily translate into jobs in the civilian world here either.
kayo_20211030 2y ago
> People love an underdog. Yes, we do. Carry on. You're winning.
kayodelycaon 2y ago
[deleted]
- robocat 2y ago
  > bipolar > neurotypical Labelling people is rude and is not allowed in HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20378464 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20378464
vouaobrasil 2y ago
Well I actually think it's a good idea. A lot of people scoff at not having a real house/apartment or address, but I don't see why. As long as you can basically take care of yourself, living in a car should be totally feasible. We need to embrace more alternative living situations anyway such as tiny houses and minimalism because everyone owning big properties just isn't sustainable for our population.
- vasco 2y ago
  Won't there be a bunch of empty houses in 2 or 3 generations anyway due to the fertility rates crashing down globally below fertility replacement levels?
  - infecto 2y ago
    For what its worth this guy should have his own tag. He joins every AI thread and talks about the use of natural resources and downfall of humanity.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    There’s already a bunch of empty houses. But not in places where people want to live. People don’t want to be in an empty house in a cheap place, it’s cheap for a reason.
    - consteval 2y ago
      The promise of WFH could have reduced this factor for many (most?) office workers. Unfortunately, we're dialing back hugely on that. So we're right back to people clustering in extremely HCOL areas while they're surrounded by ample space and housing. Nobody wants to commute 3 hours to work. And nobody wants to build an office in the middle of nowhere. The end result is obvious. Also, Americans as a whole are allergic to affordable housing. A commie block or two could solve this, but we're still making "luxury" two story apartments out of glorified popsicle sticks and vinyl.
testhest 2y ago
Not only is part time work a financially good idea in the short term but it also looks good on a CV even if it's not strictly relevant to the area you want to work in after graduation.
swader999 2y ago
It's not as simple as it sounds. Dealing with heat, cold, safety, condensation and even mould aren't trivial.
catlikesshrimp 2y ago
This man is living the dream of many kids: Becoming a tiktoker (previously, an influencer) https://fortune.com/europe/2024/10/22/university-degree-for-influencers-ireland/ https://fortune.com/europe/2024/10/22/university-degree-for-... Yep, that's education, for you!
TrackerFF 2y ago
Man, these misery porn stories seem to be almost uniquely American. Crazy to think that normal people live in their car / live as homeless people. It's one of those thing that is straight up unheard of in Europe.
- kleiba 2y ago
  I hope you mean North American, because this story is from Canada.
- jfim 2y ago
  The author is Canadian.
- kasey_junk 2y ago
  I was curious so I picked a random European city (Athens) and compared its homeless population to my own random American city (Chicago) and the rates were similar. I don’t think that’s an excuse for bad social policy around homelessness of course.
mihaaly 2y ago
This is unnatural and unhealthy. For the individual and the society alike. Societies are obsessed with economic (amount of dollars) performance and the competition between and inside countries. Which on this level [1] is sick and unsustainable. The economy makes lots of money for the sake of making lots of money and for competition exploiting the livelihood of common people, sucking lots of surcharge in advance for the most basic necessities of a human being like knowledge and place to live (lack of those is social if not literal suicide), driving up competition and prices, that drives competition and payments in advance (debt) even further, in a sick downward loop. Exploiting people for extra profit for few that they have no idea how to spend so are panicing what to do with it calling investment, but more like a nervous jumping from here to there in haste, shaking the economy apart slowly in speculational rampage. People making up the society are getting to be a wreck this way or the other (as taking part of the nerve wrecking race or by left behind to rot). It is held together still somehow, but how long? Does not seem sustainable at all. It was better not being part of this humanity. This way. But what else? Could I be a magpie instead perhaps? That sounds much better idea that this high pace nervous struggling called human life. Especially when we had a better choice if we were not so damn competitive all, I mean all the time. [1] Competition is unavoidable with our finite resources and is highly beneficial on a sustainable level
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mxuribe 2y ago
So, is one of the lessons that perhaps we should all be as frugal as possible from as early a period as possible? I kinda learned that from my poor immigrant parents since i was a very young kid...Not to knock the experiences of the author there, but maybe this kind of thing is not as universally known? Then again, there is a lot of marketing in North america the likes of "You can do anything you want in life! Go to college, and then get a house, get married and you too will WIN!" ...which is of course misses the inclusion of all the gritty details for what happens along the way if things are not managed well, or misunderstood. I learned the lesson of college debt really early on, and have been resistant o take on any debt at all...which is not easy in North America; but possible. I don't say these things to downplay whatever journey the author is going through...And i hate to say, well, this happens because of capitalism...but, dang it, if things seem so shady everywhere now, and capitalism never seemed as horrible as it *feels* nowadays. Or, maybe i just need to drink some decaff. now? ;-)
FigurativeVoid 2y ago
If you want to do some interesting reading about car living, check out r/priusdwellers[1]. The Prius seems to be favored because it can idle for so long with battery support. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/priusdwellers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/priusdwellers/
reacharavindh 2y ago
Apart from the "education shouldnt run you into huge debts", "Gig economy and working 70 hours/week should not be normalised", "social life while young is not as important as paying off the racked up debts", and "this is a TikTok experiment, X number of people are watching me live my life" arguments which I'm sure will be discussed heavily, I found the "hacking one's life expenses to see how one can save money to payoff their debts" part interesting. A house/apartment/address comes with a lot of fixed costs - rent/mortgage, insurance, maintenance fees, gas, electricity, sewage, water, internet, Amazon impulse purchases because there is space, furniture, appliances etc. If one doesnt need the address to register themselves as a resident of the city/town/country for legal purposes, mobile home + shared utilities(toilets, laundry, occasional hotel stays) would make an effective temporary hack to save a lot of money.
- nuancebydefault 2y ago
  In fact most of mentioned expenses are due as well, when living in a car. The biggest exception being Amazon impulse purchases. Maybe there's a hack to avoid them?
  - reacharavindh 2y ago
    Yes, they may be due but certainly not to the same extent. Anecdotally, I pay : 1. Water fees - Approx EUR 23/month 2. Electricity - EUR 73/month 3. Trash collection- EUR 40/month 4. Home insurance (and home contents insurance) - EUR 40/month 5. Gas connection- EUR 24/month 6. Home Internet - EUR 70/month 7. Sewage - EUR 12/month 8. Property taxes 9. Window cleaning - EUR 12/2 months. Ofcourse, they’re are all in a way “quality of life” costs. But, if I were to optimise for money, I could imagine living in a motorhome, pay my EUR 42/month gym fees and use the gym daily in addition to other shared utilities and avoid all those micro costs. Everything comes with trade-offs, but it is worthwhile to think about alternative options for alternative priorities.
    - nuancebydefault 2y ago
      From those numbers, I think you did very well already in optimization. In a lot of places rent is more than 1000 euros, so those costs are quite low in comparison. Everything is relative. My late mother used to say 'one can spend a lot, with very little one can get by'.
jcmontx 2y ago
So many of his decisions sound so stupid. Finishing your degree at 30 with no experience? What the hell is that? I started my first internship at the age of 19.
ratmeadow 2y ago
With stories like these, it's easy to blame the guy and say he should've known better than to get into debt. To an extent I agree, however there's probably a bigger picture takeaway. There is a mismatch between what people expect/want based on what ideas are sold to them by society, and what is financially possible. You could make the argument that in the past, the wage to living cost ratio was high enough that you wouldn't have to bust your ass so much to just barely get by. Could he have lived more financially optimally? Yes (you always can). But is it that crazy to get an education and then expect a decent life after? The guy works 60 hours a week yet cannot afford housing, proper food, a family, nor any life pleasures. Is that reasonable? Is this really the best society we can come up with?
- grugagag 2y ago
  You can tell something is wrong at a systemic level by looking at the rise in people in this situation.
- sbarre 2y ago
  I think this also highlights the lack of financial literacy and education that people get at a young age. So much hindsight clarity in that article. I know when I was in high school and in early adulthood I didn't understand much about personal finance. There should be multiple classes in high school and college/uni that teach you about this stuff.
  - thunky 2y ago
    > There should be multiple classes in high school and college/uni that teach you about this stuff. And parents should be teaching their kids about money.
    - sbarre 2y ago
      Not all parents are good about money.. My parents taught me things about money that turned out to be terrible advice... This is like saying "parents should teach their kids to drive".. There's a reason driving schools exist. Kids should be getting a professional curriculum and accurate information about personal finance at school.
nuclearwast 2y ago
This is an exception. It's in canada, Québec of all place where cost of living is lower. 1- he should have stayed at home with his parent. 2- his parent should have help him with his debt. 3- he should have worked while studying: this is super rare. 4- university is much cheaper there like 2000$ per semester. Should I go on? Pre-pandemic 100k$ is an insane amount. 10k is common, so is 20k, but above that? pretty rare, yet he claims most of his friends had a similar situation. HEC is one of the best finance school in canada, guy stay there 8 years, seems to have zero knowledge of money. Then uber eats? That's weird. Most hec diploma will land you a 100k/years, after a few years. 400/month is not that much. Don't quit your job and become homeless for that! Lots of bad choices here.
- dorfsmay 2y ago
  Staying at your parents while studying means a local university which one might not be able to get in, or it could a worse choice. Not all parents can afford to help their kids with their debts, we don't know details about their financial situation.
dorfsmay 2y ago
> Canada has a worse debt-to-income ratio than any other G7 country, with a total consumer debt of $2.5 trillion. That’s more than Canada’s GDP. > Higher education was supposed to be an investment in my future. But now students like me are stuck paying off their debts over years or even decades. This is largely due to the mismatch between the high cost of education and low, stagnating starting wages Meanwhile political campaigns at both provincial and federal levels are mostly ad hominem attacks and fear mongering ("it'll be the end of the world with the other guy").
antisthenes 2y ago
Ragebait Article About a Person Who Pretends They Can't Do Basic Math in Order to Get a Bigger Social Media Following.
ja27 2y ago
I was going to comment this but he actually mentions Michael Hickey in the article. He says he banked $60k towards building a tiny home in 146 days living in his car, doing Doordash etc., and posting/streaming a lot of social media. I believe there are many days where he says his income from views is higher than his delivery work but gotta have content to film.

28 points by pards 2y ago

I wondering isn't possible for that person to move temporarily to his parent's home? Before attacking me - i live in Southern Europe and most of children's here still living with parents or grandparents. I even know a house nearby where there are living 4 generations in one house.

mmierz 2y ago
This is addressed in the article
infecto 2y ago
"...and my parents, who live nearby, would have gladly taken me in. But I wanted to treat this period as a challenge, to prove to myself that I could accomplish hard things. Around that time, I was following a YouTuber.." He artificially induced the situation.
- 3D30497420 2y ago
  Yup, as a sort of social media/TikTok experiment.
  - mobilio 2y ago
    I understand that experiment... but just wondering. For example - we live 100 km. from mine parents, wife parents are 200 km from us. Mine brother live with parents. Wife brother live near their parents - 10 km. and visit them almost daily. In Southern Europe - it's OK. For Northern Europe it's not normal - there children leave home early.
batch12 2y ago
An "influencer" inspired him to do something he could write about. > and my parents, who live nearby, would have gladly taken me in. > Around that time, I was following a YouTuber named Michael Hickey, who made videos showing how he lived frugally out of his car. I decided to do the same thing.
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
Moving in with your parents post college shouldn't be a badge of shame in this era of real estate shortage/inflation, college superinflation, health care costs, decades of wage suppression, lack of college-education jobs. Europe is ahead of the US in terms of urbanization and postindustrial economic structures, where real estate has long been totally owned by the elites. The US is moving towards a similar state with the arrival of massive private equity buyups of real estate.
- infecto 2y ago
  > The US is moving towards a similar state with the arrival of massive private equity buyups of real estate. This feels a little untruthful. PE and other investment vehicles are of course investing in multi-unit buildings (apartments) and have been part of some of the new rental communities that have been built out but they represent a small blip in the SFH side of real estate. The biggest shift in my opinion has been the creation of rental SFH communities backed by investment vehicles but again these are being newly built so at worst they have possible short-term impact on builder supply. I am not sure how that impacts the landscape though, new builds are adding to the rental stock.
  - Schiendelman 2y ago
    Private equity is a total red herring. Their impact is virtually zero. The issue here is that we restrict new housing from being built in thousands of ways - meaning the people who would be buying that housing (the ones buying houses today, to live in) are buying old stock instead, driving up the price of a supply constrained good. This is entirely the fault of land use codes - setbacks, parking minimums, FAR limits, design review, height limits, years long permitting processes... we created this in our local governments.
    - infecto 2y ago
      Agree but unfortunately when you point this out usually you get downvoted to oblivion. It is a supply demand problem and I would even add to the point that the financial crisis helped set us up for the current environment we are in. We are still not even close to the historical level of housing starts pre 2007-08. We lost a number of builders in that process.

dvh 2y ago

[flagged]

gotts 2y ago
don't blame the player blame the game
infecto 2y ago
The issue with some college programs is that they focus more on getting students to pay for degrees than on preparing them for the future. While I believe colleges can be extremely valuable, many of these programs are lacking. Part of the problem might stem from how student loans are treated differently than other types of debt, without properly accounting for risk. It makes me wonder if there’s data on how many graduates from a given degree program actually enter a field related to their studies. With that kind of information, it might be possible to better assess the risk associated with student loans. Loans are just one part of the equation, but they’re a critical one. Edit: In case it was not clear, I am arguing that the formula here is entities who are incentivized by churning students through programs and loans which are not being properly underwritten. Student loans should not be a special class of debt. We have gone over the line of improving upward mobility and created an industry that produces useless degrees with high debt loads. If student loan could be discharged easily via bankruptcy and the underwriting process could potentially reject applications based on risk, it might be easier to help funnel people through. Instead we allow young people to take on $30-50k for a masters degree that has little to no chance of being useful.
- themaninthedark 2y ago
  A collage degree is not a jobs training program, it is a is supposed to give you a deeper understanding of the fundamentals in a field of study. Just because some employers require a degree(or equivalent experience) for some jobs, it does not guarantee that you will get that job. An example would be Electrical Engineering, with this degree you could do work in a power plant or design cheap kids toys(or anything in between). What you want to do is up to you and you need to chart your own course. If you want a program that trains you and then gives you a job that you have received training for, the military is famous for that. However, don't expect that the job training that you received will necessarily translate into jobs in the civilian world here either.

kayo_20211030 2y ago

> People love an underdog. Yes, we do. Carry on. You're winning.

kayodelycaon 2y ago

[deleted]

robocat 2y ago
> bipolar > neurotypical Labelling people is rude and is not allowed in HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20378464 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20378464

vouaobrasil 2y ago

Well I actually think it's a good idea. A lot of people scoff at not having a real house/apartment or address, but I don't see why. As long as you can basically take care of yourself, living in a car should be totally feasible. We need to embrace more alternative living situations anyway such as tiny houses and minimalism because everyone owning big properties just isn't sustainable for our population.

vasco 2y ago
Won't there be a bunch of empty houses in 2 or 3 generations anyway due to the fertility rates crashing down globally below fertility replacement levels?
- infecto 2y ago
  For what its worth this guy should have his own tag. He joins every AI thread and talks about the use of natural resources and downfall of humanity.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  There’s already a bunch of empty houses. But not in places where people want to live. People don’t want to be in an empty house in a cheap place, it’s cheap for a reason.
  - consteval 2y ago
    The promise of WFH could have reduced this factor for many (most?) office workers. Unfortunately, we're dialing back hugely on that. So we're right back to people clustering in extremely HCOL areas while they're surrounded by ample space and housing. Nobody wants to commute 3 hours to work. And nobody wants to build an office in the middle of nowhere. The end result is obvious. Also, Americans as a whole are allergic to affordable housing. A commie block or two could solve this, but we're still making "luxury" two story apartments out of glorified popsicle sticks and vinyl.

testhest 2y ago

Not only is part time work a financially good idea in the short term but it also looks good on a CV even if it's not strictly relevant to the area you want to work in after graduation.

swader999 2y ago

It's not as simple as it sounds. Dealing with heat, cold, safety, condensation and even mould aren't trivial.

catlikesshrimp 2y ago

This man is living the dream of many kids: Becoming a tiktoker (previously, an influencer) https://fortune.com/europe/2024/10/22/university-degree-for-influencers-ireland/ https://fortune.com/europe/2024/10/22/university-degree-for-... Yep, that's education, for you!

TrackerFF 2y ago

Man, these misery porn stories seem to be almost uniquely American. Crazy to think that normal people live in their car / live as homeless people. It's one of those thing that is straight up unheard of in Europe.

kleiba 2y ago
I hope you mean North American, because this story is from Canada.
jfim 2y ago
The author is Canadian.
kasey_junk 2y ago
I was curious so I picked a random European city (Athens) and compared its homeless population to my own random American city (Chicago) and the rates were similar. I don’t think that’s an excuse for bad social policy around homelessness of course.

mihaaly 2y ago

This is unnatural and unhealthy. For the individual and the society alike. Societies are obsessed with economic (amount of dollars) performance and the competition between and inside countries. Which on this level [1] is sick and unsustainable. The economy makes lots of money for the sake of making lots of money and for competition exploiting the livelihood of common people, sucking lots of surcharge in advance for the most basic necessities of a human being like knowledge and place to live (lack of those is social if not literal suicide), driving up competition and prices, that drives competition and payments in advance (debt) even further, in a sick downward loop. Exploiting people for extra profit for few that they have no idea how to spend so are panicing what to do with it calling investment, but more like a nervous jumping from here to there in haste, shaking the economy apart slowly in speculational rampage. People making up the society are getting to be a wreck this way or the other (as taking part of the nerve wrecking race or by left behind to rot). It is held together still somehow, but how long? Does not seem sustainable at all. It was better not being part of this humanity. This way. But what else? Could I be a magpie instead perhaps? That sounds much better idea that this high pace nervous struggling called human life. Especially when we had a better choice if we were not so damn competitive all, I mean all the time. [1] Competition is unavoidable with our finite resources and is highly beneficial on a sustainable level

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mxuribe 2y ago

So, is one of the lessons that perhaps we should all be as frugal as possible from as early a period as possible? I kinda learned that from my poor immigrant parents since i was a very young kid...Not to knock the experiences of the author there, but maybe this kind of thing is not as universally known? Then again, there is a lot of marketing in North america the likes of "You can do anything you want in life! Go to college, and then get a house, get married and you too will WIN!" ...which is of course misses the inclusion of all the gritty details for what happens along the way if things are not managed well, or misunderstood. I learned the lesson of college debt really early on, and have been resistant o take on any debt at all...which is not easy in North America; but possible. I don't say these things to downplay whatever journey the author is going through...And i hate to say, well, this happens because of capitalism...but, dang it, if things seem so shady everywhere now, and capitalism never seemed as horrible as it *feels* nowadays. Or, maybe i just need to drink some decaff. now? ;-)

FigurativeVoid 2y ago

If you want to do some interesting reading about car living, check out r/priusdwellers[1]. The Prius seems to be favored because it can idle for so long with battery support. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/priusdwellers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/priusdwellers/

reacharavindh 2y ago

Apart from the "education shouldnt run you into huge debts", "Gig economy and working 70 hours/week should not be normalised", "social life while young is not as important as paying off the racked up debts", and "this is a TikTok experiment, X number of people are watching me live my life" arguments which I'm sure will be discussed heavily, I found the "hacking one's life expenses to see how one can save money to payoff their debts" part interesting. A house/apartment/address comes with a lot of fixed costs - rent/mortgage, insurance, maintenance fees, gas, electricity, sewage, water, internet, Amazon impulse purchases because there is space, furniture, appliances etc. If one doesnt need the address to register themselves as a resident of the city/town/country for legal purposes, mobile home + shared utilities(toilets, laundry, occasional hotel stays) would make an effective temporary hack to save a lot of money.

nuancebydefault 2y ago
In fact most of mentioned expenses are due as well, when living in a car. The biggest exception being Amazon impulse purchases. Maybe there's a hack to avoid them?
- reacharavindh 2y ago
  Yes, they may be due but certainly not to the same extent. Anecdotally, I pay : 1. Water fees - Approx EUR 23/month 2. Electricity - EUR 73/month 3. Trash collection- EUR 40/month 4. Home insurance (and home contents insurance) - EUR 40/month 5. Gas connection- EUR 24/month 6. Home Internet - EUR 70/month 7. Sewage - EUR 12/month 8. Property taxes 9. Window cleaning - EUR 12/2 months. Ofcourse, they’re are all in a way “quality of life” costs. But, if I were to optimise for money, I could imagine living in a motorhome, pay my EUR 42/month gym fees and use the gym daily in addition to other shared utilities and avoid all those micro costs. Everything comes with trade-offs, but it is worthwhile to think about alternative options for alternative priorities.
  - nuancebydefault 2y ago
    From those numbers, I think you did very well already in optimization. In a lot of places rent is more than 1000 euros, so those costs are quite low in comparison. Everything is relative. My late mother used to say 'one can spend a lot, with very little one can get by'.

jcmontx 2y ago

So many of his decisions sound so stupid. Finishing your degree at 30 with no experience? What the hell is that? I started my first internship at the age of 19.

ratmeadow 2y ago

With stories like these, it's easy to blame the guy and say he should've known better than to get into debt. To an extent I agree, however there's probably a bigger picture takeaway. There is a mismatch between what people expect/want based on what ideas are sold to them by society, and what is financially possible. You could make the argument that in the past, the wage to living cost ratio was high enough that you wouldn't have to bust your ass so much to just barely get by. Could he have lived more financially optimally? Yes (you always can). But is it that crazy to get an education and then expect a decent life after? The guy works 60 hours a week yet cannot afford housing, proper food, a family, nor any life pleasures. Is that reasonable? Is this really the best society we can come up with?

grugagag 2y ago
You can tell something is wrong at a systemic level by looking at the rise in people in this situation.
sbarre 2y ago
I think this also highlights the lack of financial literacy and education that people get at a young age. So much hindsight clarity in that article. I know when I was in high school and in early adulthood I didn't understand much about personal finance. There should be multiple classes in high school and college/uni that teach you about this stuff.
- thunky 2y ago
  > There should be multiple classes in high school and college/uni that teach you about this stuff. And parents should be teaching their kids about money.
  - sbarre 2y ago
    Not all parents are good about money.. My parents taught me things about money that turned out to be terrible advice... This is like saying "parents should teach their kids to drive".. There's a reason driving schools exist. Kids should be getting a professional curriculum and accurate information about personal finance at school.

nuclearwast 2y ago

This is an exception. It's in canada, Québec of all place where cost of living is lower. 1- he should have stayed at home with his parent. 2- his parent should have help him with his debt. 3- he should have worked while studying: this is super rare. 4- university is much cheaper there like 2000$ per semester. Should I go on? Pre-pandemic 100k$ is an insane amount. 10k is common, so is 20k, but above that? pretty rare, yet he claims most of his friends had a similar situation. HEC is one of the best finance school in canada, guy stay there 8 years, seems to have zero knowledge of money. Then uber eats? That's weird. Most hec diploma will land you a 100k/years, after a few years. 400/month is not that much. Don't quit your job and become homeless for that! Lots of bad choices here.

dorfsmay 2y ago
Staying at your parents while studying means a local university which one might not be able to get in, or it could a worse choice. Not all parents can afford to help their kids with their debts, we don't know details about their financial situation.

dorfsmay 2y ago

> Canada has a worse debt-to-income ratio than any other G7 country, with a total consumer debt of $2.5 trillion. That’s more than Canada’s GDP. > Higher education was supposed to be an investment in my future. But now students like me are stuck paying off their debts over years or even decades. This is largely due to the mismatch between the high cost of education and low, stagnating starting wages Meanwhile political campaigns at both provincial and federal levels are mostly ad hominem attacks and fear mongering ("it'll be the end of the world with the other guy").

antisthenes 2y ago

Ragebait Article About a Person Who Pretends They Can't Do Basic Math in Order to Get a Bigger Social Media Following.

ja27 2y ago

I was going to comment this but he actually mentions Michael Hickey in the article. He says he banked $60k towards building a tiny home in 146 days living in his car, doing Doordash etc., and posting/streaming a lot of social media. I believe there are many days where he says his income from views is higher than his delivery work but gotta have content to film.