Why A 24-year-old Tesla Engineer Lived In A Van For Five Months

Short Bytes: This is the story of a 24-year-old Tesla engineer who lived in a van for five months some cash for repaying his student loans. “That was supposed to be a temporary situation until I figured out where I really wanted to live,” Roesslein said in an interview.

This the story of a young engineer Jason Roesslein aged 24, about how he spent five months from October 2014 to March 2015 while he worked for the Tesla, in a 2006 Dodge Sprinter Van, so he could repay his $14000 student loan, “studio on wheels”, as he calls it.

It all started about one and a half years ago when moved from Illinois to Bay area to start his job as a Tesla engineer, shared $1250/month room with his roommate, “That was supposed to be a temporary situation until I figured out where I really wanted to live,” Roesslein said in an interview. “As I got further and further along in my thinking, I decided that I would try to live in a van, and I eventually pulled the trigger on it”, he added.

After a five month stay in his “studio on wheels”, he was able to repay all his loans and save extra $10,000, so that he could start his new life happily. He used his gym to take the shower and eat his meals.

He thought of an affordable housing, just where he could lay his head and cook some food, “My housing hunt had turned into the desire for a small mobile space to lay my head, cook and eat some food, store a few things, and hang out for a bit each day”, he wrote on Medium. When he arrived at the decision to choose a van as his home, he purchased a 2006 Dodge Sprinter from eBay for $13,000 and collected it from Houston, Texas.

He used a sleeping bag which he placed on a sleeping pad, “Some nights it would get fairly cold, but I had a small propane heater and a zero degree sleeping bag — and, it’s nice to sleep in the cold”, he recalled, talking about how comfortable he felt in his arrangement in the van.

He actually didn’t like his nomadic lifestyle very much,

I decided I would rather spend the money to have a personal home base type of thing, and then get an adventure mobile for going on little side trips.

But he still remembers his experiences and feels nostalgic about his days in the van. He said:

Having the van was a nice way to get away from everything else, and just focus on whatever you want to focus on, whether it’s learning or reading, or your life. I am strongly considering getting back to it. Stay tuned for van life part two.