Y'all, the rent is too damn high.

I'm sure like most of you, I've worked full time (or more) pretty much my entire adult life and still struggled to pay my bills. I've fluctuated between kinda staying afloat to scrounging around for spare change to buy lunch. I've lost thousands of dollars over the years to overdraft fees, late fees, predatory interest rates, and the various other financial penalties that come with being poor.

And at the center of everything is rent. Every month I'm throwing half my paycheck into a rent-shaped black hole, where that money simply disappears. It does not serve me in any way, there is no long term benefit to look forward to, I'm just making someone else richer while I continue to drown. Yay capitalism!

All that is not to give you some sob story or inspire pity, but just to contextualize the decision I've made: I'm going to try out van life. Not the most luxurious option, but it will be something I own, something of value that is actually mine, and that's what's important to me right now. I convinced my dad to cosign with me on a cargo van that I am going to convert into a cozy little home on wheels. I'm going to do all the work myself to cut down on costs, keeping it as simple as possible while still being an actual home and not just a box to sleep in.

That's where you come in: I'm not asking you to help pay for the van itself, I'll be taking care of that, but there will be building costs that I could use some assistance with. I'll need to insulate and ventilate the van, install an electrical system (including solar panels), do all the carpentry, buy a lil fridge and stove, figure out a wifi solution, and probably a million other little things that will pop up along the way. The electrical work will be the most expensive portion of that, and also the part that will need to be done most urgently, so that's fun.

I'm going to try and cover as much of those costs as I can myself (by selling ~95% of my stuff), but if you feel like throwing a few dollars my way to help make it happen, I would be eternally grateful. And hey, maybe once I'm set up with my little mobile abode I can come visit your city and give you a house tour!