It may seem eccentric, but a young man traveled every day from one city to another by plane to complete his college classes and graduate and, although it may seem hard to believe, it was the best way he could found to save.
The protagonist of this story is Bill Zhou, who prefers to save money to rent an apartment in San Francisco, California (United States) where he studies at the University of Berkeley, commuting every day from his home. in Los Angeles, in the same American. state.
Instead of committing to an expensive rental contract, Zhou decided to take an alternative that involved discipline and good time and money management to fulfill his academic obligations.
In a Reddit thread, Zhou said his daily routine starts at 3:40 a.m. so he can catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. public university, 10:00 am
Now, when he finished his classes, he returned to his home in Los Angeles, where he arrived at midnight.
“The door-to-door travel time between my home in Los Angeles and my classroom in Berkeley is 4 to 5 hours each way… So yes, I spend a lot of time commuting, ” he said on Reddit.
The young man did this marathon, running between cities three times a week aboard Alaska Airlines planes, whose flights lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes each way.
The strategy, at first glance, seems expensive, but is it true? The young man explained that, in order to save money, he became an “expert” in financial planning.
On the social network he said that he bought the plane tickets in advance and used the points accumulated from previous trips to reduce the cost. In total, he spent $5,593 on air transportation, which turned out to be cheaper than paying rent in San Francisco.
And, in the Berkeley area, rents for an apartment can range between $1,300 and $3,358 according to the RentCafe portal. If Zhou had moved to San Francisco to one of the cheapest houses, he would have spent at least $9,000 while continuing his studies.
San Francisco, like other regions of California, has experienced an exponential increase in housing rents, leaving thousands of homeless people on the streets due to the impossibility of paying for a roof over their heads. This phenomenon is known as “homelessness.”
Why insist on this sacrifice? Why didn’t you change universities? The young man explained that, despite being tired, the reason for staying strong and finishing his studies hundreds of kilometers away from his home is that Berkeley offers “the best program in civil engineering across the country,” he said in an interview with The Times.
