FIRE Monthly Newsletter: April 2025

I’m sure you all had a wonderful Easter holiday, didn’t you? Welcome back to the April 2025 edition of the Money of Life monthly newsletter. I will share my story of living in a car.

I will also be continuing my FIRE journey.

Live in Car

Let me tell you about an experiment I did in the first three months of 2025. After realizing that renting a house was making up as much as 50% of my monthly spending ($2,500 spent on rentals and about $2,500 on Groceries/others) and making it not worth it, I made a bold decision when the lease on my house was about to expire – to try living in my car for three months.

Although I had already watched the movie Nomadland and yearned for this kind of life, the story of the movie is about how the heroine, Fern, embarks on an RV life and finds herself in it. The reason I yearn for it is how freeing it feels to be able to do whatever I want after work, such as driving to the beach, looking at the ocean and listening to the waves, while opening my MacBook to do what I want to do. Best of all, it also saves me at least half of what I spend.

So I started to try it out.

How it feels

At first, it was complicated by the excitement of the mood coupled with physical discomfort. When I got out of the car in the morning, I was in direct contact with nature, as if the first breath of air was so refreshing. But also because, for example, the noise of other cars passing by at irregular intervals when the car is parked on the side of the road, or the uneven level of the vehicle’s parking, leading to the feeling as if you were sleeping on a tilted bed. Later on, I became familiar with this kind of life. From not being able to find a restroom, to arranging to park where I could easily walk to one. Slowly, I found some ways to make it more convenient for me.

I remember the one that made me most comfortable was a rainy day, lying in the car, listening to the sound made by the raindrops hammering on the roof of the car, and looking at the ocean view outside the car, which was really enjoyable.

I Quit Later

But after 3 months, I decided not to continue this way. I will explain more details and my findings in subsequent updates.

This Newsletter is a record of my FIRE journey and I will do my best to share my cognitive enhancement every month. If you’re interested, I’d love for you to share it with your friends. You can share it with them and sign up by going here.

If you’re interested in this site or content, or if you’re interested in exploring personal financial independence content, you can send me your stories to rob@moneyoflife.com. I’d love to hear from you.