Summary: A recent law school graduate decided to wait for bar exam results by living out of his office and car before leasing an apartment.
A recent graduate from U.C. Hastings College of Law was offered a job as a public defender in Silicon Valley. His job was contingent on passing the bar exam. This new graduate, known as Mitchell, was excited to accept the job and start work immediately, but leasing an apartment with the risk of being out of a job in a few months worried him.
Mitchell looked into finding roommates through Craigslist but was thoroughly creeped out after meeting two potential roommates. He was originally living with relatives in Antioch, but that commute was not possible. He decided that he would live out of his office and truck until he received his bar results confirming his status as a permanent employee.
This was the only option that Mitchell could figure out since he was a newly minted lawyer and completely broke that could not afford the high metropolitan living costs. Mitchell is not the first, nor probably the last, attorney to resort to using their office as double duty. A Los Angeles man used his cubicle to sleep in for 500 days because he was unable to afford rent in the area.
Mitchell spent over 150 days in this office and truck. He would stay at the office until the last person left and then use his desk as a dining area and bedroom. He would heat up a frozen meal and watch shows online until falling asleep in his chair. If a co-worker stayed exceptionally late, he would spend the night in the back of his truck in the health club parking lot where he worked out, showered, and ironed his clothes each morning before going back to work. On the weekends he would visit relatives in East Bay. His relatives had no idea he had no place of his own.
Eventually Mitchell received his bar exam results showing that he had passed so he was able to become a permanent employee and get a slight pay increase. He was now comfortable in leasing an apartment of his own. He was able to save more than $12,000 and many commuter hours by living out of his office and car. He doesn’t advise his method for anyone else, and is enjoying having an apartment and bed to sleep in each night.
Photo: money.cnn.com