Early Retirement Extreme Forums

"When Their Shifts End, Uber Drivers Set Up Camp in Parking Lots Across the U.S."

It's viable until it's not viable. Not all communities embrace camping in parking lots and I suspect some will be shut down. On the other hand, I don't think the Uber corporate model is all that good for society, either.

I don't see how this relates to ERE. Working 70 hours a week for an average of 230$/day and sleeping in your car while you anyway pay rent (or mortgage) for a place to live? Eh, what strategy did I miss?

Theoretically you could do the ride sharing job, including sleeping/living in the car, and as long as you're maintaining around a 75% savings rate you should become FI in about 5-7 years. That would be one hell of a way to do it though, you'd be at the whim of the competitive forces at play in that market which seem to be moving towards commoditization (lowest price wins). Also it seems somewhat dangerous given that you're driving around for long periods in busy urban environments and also having to deal with the stress of basically living out of your car. I'd never do it that way but no doubt there's some people out there who could do it.

But then you'd have to keep all your stuff in your car but still hide it from your passengers...

My old health club rents large lockers to members. That kind of arrangement might work if you wanted to live out of your car. You'd also have access to a shower and bathroom. My club provided soap and shampoo in the showers, toiletry needs like q-tips and such, and even a couple of irons for use in the locker room.

I just looked up current prices and a full membership with access to the pool and all exercise rooms, free classes, steam room, sauna, 1x/month massage, 1x/month personal training session, and a permanent locker is $171/month for an individual (and that's in a pretty expensive area). Seems workable to me.

jennypenny wrote:My old health club rents large lockers to members. That kind of arrangement might work if you wanted to live out of your car.

We had an acquaintance who decided to live in his truck to save money (nothing to do with Uber driving). He used a health club as @jp mentions, but he said one problem was where to store his dirty laundry. I suggested that he rent an additional locker, which he did at a reasonable cost, and he was pretty satisfied with the setup for about a year...until he acquired a steady girlfriend.

Yes, it seems like some additional storage capacity would be essential.

Maybe there is some way to configure working a standard 9-5 job, driving Uber during off-hours, and sleeping in the vehicle the rest of the time.

"It's a long hustle, but it keeps me real busy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9PCcx7i4xQ