Thoughts from Inside The Box

Student loan debt is, uh…a problem in the good ole US of A, to say the least.

It’s been a while since I last lambasted any of the ideals that keep the American Economic Engine™ chuggin’ along.

It’s been a while since my last post, and a lot has happened since then.

Looking at a list of unanswered questions people have sent me, I couldn’t find a single reasonable thread that united any of them, save the fact that they all concern my truckly ways.

Truthfully, I’ve been doing a pretty awful job at keeping you guys updated with what I’m actually doing, truckwise.

This post is less about the “trucks” and more about the “tax-advantaged accounts”, which hopefully won’t offend too many sensibilities.

Yeah yeah, I know, the first day of Spring was one two three four days ago, these posts don’t write themselves (though with enough imagination, time, and Markov chains, they kinda could).

Way back in July of last year, someone gave me the idea to track how much money I was saving by not having to pay rent in the area.

Brief note: I wrote most of this on the plane, but it took me a few days to getting around to polishing it up.

I know, I know, I don’t write as often as I used to.

I’ve discussed my homelessness on here before, but between my camping trip a few months back and my early retirement revelation, I now have a whole new lens to examine it under.

This Q&A is a total potpourri of everything I’ve gotten in the past month (or three), but I’ve done my best to group them together.

Do you think a female going to grad school could survive your adventure?

Remember when I got a bad speeding ticket, thought I was going to lose my license, and then luckily did not end up losing my license?

On the last episode of From Inside the Box, we found our pickup truck protagonist in the throes of a struggle for survival: not of flesh, but of his very livelihood.

It’s been two months since I opened my large mouth a little too widely, and things have calmed down considerably.

I gave my spiel about such lightweight topics as money, financial planning, and how I plan to live the rest of my ephemeral human life.

It’s been long enough.

Desiccant.

It’s been a while (six months almost to the day) since I did my last big Home Improvement post, and I think it’s about high time we changed that.

TrainspottingDefinitely not the word I’m looking for, but it sounds cool I noted early on that I wasn’t the only sketchy-looking vehicle on campus.

What CMS are you using?

Disclaimer: All salaries and bonuses in this post – even those based on real paychecks – are entirely fictional.

Note: I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but I’m pretty sure the title is a reference to it.

I’d like to start with a eulogy.

Insurance.

Note: Throughout this post, I use phrases like “yesterday” and “last night”.

I promised a mega Q&A, I’m delivering a mega Q&A.

Picture This It’s midnight and my flight has just landed in Boston, two hours behind schedule.

One of the perks of the truck that I always mention is its mobility.

Wow, that was intense.

It’s been a while since my last Home Improvement post, which is bad because it means I’m not improving the truck.

I like to think I’m pretty environmentally friendly.

I’ve never really been camping before, so when a friend asked if I wanted to go camping over Labor Day weekend, I gladly accepted.

People have all sorts of suggestions for how you should spend your 20s, and they land pretty much everywhere on the spectrum.

In a world where everything is prepackaged, replaceable, and easily disposable, trash is tragically an unavoidable by-product of living.

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, I've been busy with a product launch and doing a bit of work-related travel, so I haven't had a chance to sit down and polish off any of posts.

Human beings didn’t become the dominant lifeforms on the planet by being rigid and inflexible in the face of change.

I knew the day would come eventually.

…or at least drive Class B vehicles.

One problem that you wouldn’t expect to have in a truck is losing things.

Gnat nightmares, spider sadness, moth madness, ant anxiety, bug barrage—ok I’ll stop now.

Every once in a while, life will challenge you with a question.

I enjoy living in a truck.

Traffic is a strange beast.

As a forewarning, this post doesn’t really provide tips on how to be invisible, it’s more of an observation of human nature.

In this post, I mention that, upon my arrival, there were already several other vehicles that looked like they could be home to serial killers, the mentally-insane, or otherwise psychologically degenerate human beings.

A big part of truck life is managing the limited amount of space you have available to you.

I’ve [redacted] people’s faces from the photo , both because of the questionable legality of hanging out and drinking in a truck, and for their own privacy.

I was talking to someone, who we’ll call Michael (because that’s his name), about the truck life and this blog, and he said, “You know, it’d be cool if you had a place on the site where you could see how much money you’ve saved.”