Guys, you're doing laundry the hard way.

There's a cheap and easy-to-use tool that would turn your laundry into, if not a breeze, at least something less of a chore. But, for whatever reason, it's just not marketed to men. Even the name is off-putting to men: it's called a lingerie bag (it can also go by bra bag, or the more gender-neutral "washing bag").

WAIT, stay with me! It's not just for delicate women's underwear, and it's actually super useful for men's laundry as well. The item, after all, is pretty simple: it's a small, washable mesh bag with a zipper that looks like this:

While it's original purpose is to keep delicate (such as lingerie) safe from the harsh tumbling in the washing machine, it also performs double duty by keeping the items bunched together, easing the move from washer to dryer and ensuring they don't get lost. This is the value it has for men.

Men can stuff the bag full of washable odds and ends like nylon watch straps, socks, and loafer socks, and not have to worry about losing them in around the house when switching machines. And if you use a laundromat to get your laundry done, it's an even bigger boon to convenience. I guarantee you'll never lose a sock again.

SEE ALSO: 12 fall clothing and style hacks every guy should know

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NOW WATCH: Tony Robbins reveals the very first investment everyone should make

The Four Seasons is now offering world tours via their very own private jet. The destinations and activities offer something for everyone. 

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It's no secret that people love lists. They're organized, require minimal effort to read, and can make complicated information easy to digest. 

Lists appeal to our innate tendency to categorize information, as well as help us feel less stressed, according to The New Yorker. Seeing information as a list makes you feel less overwhelmed by a task so it's easier to complete, which in turn makes you happier, Maria Konnikova writes.

Here are 24 list ideas to get you started. 

Are there any other lists we're forgetting? Let us know in the comments. 

SEE ALSO: 19 changes to make in your 20s to set yourself up for lifelong success

DON'T MISS: 26 time-management tricks I'd wish I'd known at 20

Recipes you want to try

Pull this out the next time you're stuck on what to make for dinner for instant inspiration.

Movies you want to see

You'll never have to sit through the "I don't care, what to do you want to watch?" scenario again.

Books you want to read

Next time you're reaching for another predictable beach read, look up that acclaimed novel-of-the-year, Oprah-recommended one instead.

So much for an empty nest.

According to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center, a larger share of young women are now living at home with their parents or relatives than at any time in the past 70 years.

Looking at new data from the US Census Bureau, Pew researcher Richard Fry found a sharp rise in the percentage of young adults aged 18-34 moving back in with their parents in 2000, after decades of a slow rise. 

But it was highest among one group in particular: Women.

The rate of men moving back in with parents and other relatives is also on an upward trend, with about 42.8% of men ages 18-34 moving home as of 2014 (compared with 47.5% in 1940), but only the rate for women (36.4% in 2014) has eclipsed its 1940s figure of 36.2%. 

The data show young adults were the most independent in the 1960s, when only about 24% of men and women lived at home. Here's how the trend played out:

Fry told The New York Times that what he found most puzzling is that number of men and women opting to live at home is still going up despite being years from the Great Recession of 2008, considering how many jobs there are for young adults compared to right when the recession hit. 

"I’m still struggling with the economic explanation, since the labor market for young adults has improved in the last five years, and yet the percentage living with their family is still going up," he told The Times. "It seems to be somewhat decoupled from economics.”

Men and women are also getting married later in life, with the median age of first marriage for men 29, and women 27, which likely contributes to the number of young adults choosing to stay with family instead of living independently. 

NEXT: A tiny percentage of the population needs only 4 hours of sleep per night

CHECK OUT: Science says couples in lasting relationships typically wait this long to start having sex

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NOW WATCH: How hedge fund legend John Paulson built an empire off the 2008 financial crisis

Iceland’s ION Luxury Adventure Hotel is one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights.

The swanky hotel was made from an abandoned building that belonged to a nearby geothermal power plant, and has won many awards, like the 2014 World Boutique Hotel Award for Europe's best sustainable boutique hotel.

Stylish and industrial-chic, the hotel uses sustainable materials in an environmentally friendly way. Sinks, for example, are made of recycled tires, furniture of driftwood.

There's a lot of energy in the area: the 45-room hotel, which is less than an hour from Reykjavik, sits among mountainous lava fields, at the foot of a dormant volcano, near a geothermal power plant, and surrounded by hot springs.

Smack dab in Iceland’s Golden Circle, and close to Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the hotel is an adventurer's paradise, and offers activities like hiking up the volcano, horseback riding across black sand beaches, snowmobiling on glaciers, and diving, fly fishing, and river rafting in glacial rivers and waterfalls.

The hotel also has a spa, fair-trade restaurant, and the famous Northern Lights bar, a glass cage designed for optimal Northern Lights viewing.

Story by Sophie-Claire Hoeller and editing by Carl Mueller

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People's last words are fascinating.

Some share a nugget of wisdom, while others throw in one last joke. And, somehow, these last words end up capturing an essence of the person who uttered them.

We put together the graphic below showing the last words of nine famous people.

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NOW WATCH: You've been tucking in your shirt all wrong

The Bible is the most widely read book in the history of the world, far outselling any other book, with 3.9 billion copies sold over the last 50 years. Many believe it contains the actual word of God.

But many people don’t realize that over the past 2,000 years, this sacred text has changed a great deal. No "first edition" exists.  What we have are copies, the first of which were made hundreds of years after the events supposedly took place.

For the first 100 to 200 years, copies of the Bible were made by hand … and not by professionals. This led to many errors, omissions, and — most importantly — changes.

Produced by Joe Avella

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Zach Coopersmith has learned some important lessons over the course of his Wall Street career.

But for the 30-year-old Leading Ridge Capital cofounder, one particular moment really stands out.

It was the evening he found himself in the middle of Lehman Brothers' notorious "fourth floor" — where distressed credit and high-yield bonds were once traded — as Bloomberg screens flashed red with news the firm was filing for bankruptcy.

"Seeing the speed and the magnitude with which Lehman collapsed was eye-opening, both from a business and a philanthropic standpoint," Coopersmith told Business Insider.

He was a year and a half out of college and working for the Wall Street firm when it filed for Chapter 11 protection in September 2008.

"The clear lessons for me were: Have a transferable skill set — number one. Two, a work-life balance," he said. 

Coopersmith learned the importance of taking charge of his own destiny, and that led to two important life changes.

First, he dove into philanthropy, and joined the board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation's New York chapter. Second, he changed the direction of his professional career and ditched Wall Street banks for private equity.

Taking control

At Lehman, Coopersmith had been frustrated that he invested in businesses without ever having any real impact on them.

Now, in private equity, he says he can see the direct impact his investments have — regardless of whether those impacts are good or bad.

"Being able to call more of the shots gave me more comfort that the end-outcome would be either a success or a failure based off my actions, not at the mercy of the actions of others." 

While he was launching Leading Ridge with his father in 2009, Coopersmith also began throwing Make-A-Wish New York's annual Toast to Wishes fundraiser, now one of the hottest charity events in the city.

He approached his involvement with Make-A-Wish in the same way he would a private equity investment — it was an organization that had credibility and was fiscally responsible. He decided he wanted to partner with it.

The Toast to Wishes initiative was something Coopersmith came up with together with a few close friends.

"We felt like there was a void in the market, so to speak, of really fun — truly fun — charity events that supported great causes," he said.

They aimed to fill that void.

In its first year, the event raised $45,000. The second year it raised $170,000. Now, in its sixth year, it's raised $1.5 million in total and continues to sell out every year.

"With so many things to do, and so many places to give, why Make-A-Wish?" Coopersmith said. "For me it's simple — and it's the mission."

This year's party takes place November 19 at the Marquee in Chelsea. You can learn more about it at the Toast to Wishes website. 

And learn more about Coopersmith, his philanthropy, and his business in Bloomberg's "Good Fortunes" series:

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NOW WATCH: This poker concept can make Wall Street investors more successful

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NOW WATCH: A lake resort that spent 25 years underwater reemerged as a spooky ghost town

New York City's D Pets Hotel will spoil your dog rotten. 

For $200 a night, your dog can have a room that's bigger than some New York City apartments, all to themselves.

If they get lonely, flat-screen TVs can keep them company, showing dog-themed movies like "Beverly Hills Chihuauha" and "Fox and the Hound." When not resting, they can play with other dogs, get pedicures, or chow down on a custom-prepared meal of brown rice and meat.

D Pets Hotel is a self-proclaimed "home away from home" for dogs. Pet owners who are working or traveling can drop off their dog for extended periods of time either during the day or overnight. 

After her first D Pets Hotel was a success in Hollywood, franchise owner Kerry Brown — who had previously done US marketing for Lululemon for eight years — saw an opportunity to grow her business in New York. She opened the Chelsea location in 2012.

Brown, who is also the day-to-day hotel manager, talked to Business Insider about D Pets Hotel's services and the extra care they give their special guests.

SEE ALSO: How a chef cooks gourmet meals on a hot plate in his 100-square-foot apartment

The D Pets Hotel is located on 27th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. The 10,000-square-foot space — very large for Manhattan — provides ample room for the dogs to play and relax.

D Pet Hotels offers three different services to loving dog owners: overnight boarding, daycare, and spa and grooming. Since opening, they’ve continued to grow and have been featured on "Good Morning America" and CNN.

According to Brown, the hotel's typical clientele "can be anyone from a banker to an attorney to a yoga instructor." Even college students attending the Fashion Institute of Technology sometimes drop their dogs off while attending classes right up the street.

INSIDER went behind-the-scenes with executive chef Amy Stonionis at Murray's Cheese to learn the secrets to making the restaurant's mouthwatering mac 'n' cheese.

Stonionis emphasized the need for multiple kinds of cheese. Most cheeses will work, but she went with Spring Brook Reading, Irish cheddar, and comté. For an extra cheesy dish, she suggested making a cheese base by mixing your chosen cheeses with flour and heavy cream, and melting the mixture before adding it to the macaroni.

According to Stonionis, the best noodles for mac 'n' cheese are radiatori, since they're most effective at holding the liquidy cheese sauce. She also recommends adding more shredded cheese while cooking, and finishing the dish off with a splash of heavy cream and some bread crumbs.

Story by Sarah Schmalbruch and editing by Andrew Fowler

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Americans adore pizza.

According to a 2014 study by the US Department of Agriculture, about 1 in 8 Americans ate pizza on any given day. That's a lot of pizza.

While local pizzerias are always a good choice, there are millions of die-hard chain pizza lovers out there. These acolytes of the Pizza Big Three are steadfast in their preferences: Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's.

But the question is, from which chain to order?

It's a loaded question, and everyone has their own answer.

We decided to take the matter into our own hands and test the Big Three pizzas head-to-head to see who has the best pizza.

Who is crowned the classic-cheese champion, and who snags the supreme-pizza prize? Keep scrolling to find the results.

Our test has three categories: the classic cheese pizza, the supreme pizza, and breadsticks — the pizza palace essentials.

First, the cheese pizza choices — still hot and cheesy.

The smell of mozzarella and tomato fills the room. No matter how disappointing, all pizza is still good, so this will prove tricky. Are any pizzas truly bad?

America is home to some of the world's most stunning natural wonders, but many of these sights are increasingly under threat from climate change and pollution. 

While some are slowly experiencing change, others are deteriorating at a more rapid rate. 

We've put together a list 0f 19 incredible American natural sights that travelers should see before it's too late, from the majestic Yellowstone National Park to Hawaii's oldest island, Kauai.

SEE ALSO: The most breathtaking natural wonder in every state

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The largest subtropical wilderness in the continental US, Florida’s Everglades National Park is home to alligators, crocodiles, endangered leatherback turtles, and more than 350 species of birds. Unfortunately, both urban development and pollution from farms have destroyed more than half of the park, which is on UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list.

Click here to learn more about Everglades National Park »

Source: The Weather Channel

With over 700 miles of trails, Montana’s Glacier National Park is a paradise for hikers and those seeking up-close encounters with nature. Once home to more than 150 glaciers, the park now has fewer than 25 and is potentially at risk of losing all of its glaciers in the next 15 years thanks to climate change.

Click here to learn more about Glacier National Park »

Source: Time

The oldest national park in America, Yellowstone is famous for its array of wildlife and its stunning geysers, like Old Faithful. The park is suffering due to infrastructure problems, air pollution, and the decline of its white bark pines, which have been attacked by growing numbers of beetles.

Click here to learn more about Yellowstone National Park »

Source: AOL Travel

Luxury shoppers are highly coveted customers for brands and retailers. The top 10% of US household earners (those taking home $120,000 or more annually) account for approximately half of all consumer expenditures.

This demographic’s growing preference for online shopping is changing the face of luxury retail, and it has significant implications for how brands target luxury consumers.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we profile the luxury shopper and take a close look at the spending habits and preferences of high-income earners — including how and where they shop.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Discretionary spending among the wealthy is growing faster than for the average US consumer. Discretionary spending among those earning $120,000 a year or more is expected to increase 6.6% in 2016, reaching $406 billion, according to YouGov. Among the top 1%, it's expected to rise 10%. By contrast, discretionary spending for the average US consumer dropped 1% between 2014 and 2015.
• Wealthy consumers are expected to spend the most next year on fashion, travel, and dining. Among these categories, spending on fashion (specifically, apparel, accessories, and handbags) will grow the most, increasing 6.9% to $37.4 billion (roughly 9% of total discretionary spending). 
• Luxury brands are over-allocating ad spend to print media. The seven largest US luxury brands collectively spent $133 million last year on holiday ad spending, 57% of which was allocated to magazine ads, according to the Shullman Research Center. But among luxury shoppers, recall rates are higher for digital ads.
• There are signs that luxury shopping is less brand- and status-oriented than it once was. Luxury shoppers, like the average consumer, enjoy the convenience and low prices of online retailers like Amazon vs. shopping via official brand sites. Luxury shopping may become even more price-sensitive as millennials age. 

In full, the report:

• Sizes the market for personal luxury goods, by country.
• Measures the effectiveness of luxury marketing channels.
• Breaks down ad spend among luxury brands.
• Identifies where luxury consumers shop online and in-store.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now

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PS. Did you know...

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Our subscribers consider the INSIDER Newsletters a "daily must-read industry snapshot" and "the edge needed to succeed personally and professionally" — just to pick a few highlights from our recent customer survey.

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NOW WATCH: We tried McDonald's brand new mozzarella sticks that are going national next year

Porto, Portugal, has become one of Europe's hottest travel destinations. Located on the banks of the River Douro, Porto is one of Europe's oldest cities. It features breathtaking views, and stunning churches and cathedrals that date back to the 12th century. In fact, Porto — which gave its biggest export, port wine, its name — is the nation's second-largest city, and features the same beauty and history as Lisbon, but minus the crowds.

Check out filmmaker Kirill Neiezhmakov's incredible video about the town. 

Story and editing by Jeremy Dreyfuss

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In the summer of 2011, when Brian Smith opened the first Ample Hills Creamery ice-cream shop in Brooklyn, New York, he actually ended up losing 25 pounds. That's what happens when you work 14 hours a day turning buckets of milk and cream into zany ice-cream flavors like salted-crack caramel.

"I'd never done a day's work of manual labor in my life," the former horror-movie screenwriter tells Business Insider. But now he had a new type of blockbuster hit on his hands, and he was working himself to exhaustion trying to sustain it.

Ample Hills became a runaway success right out of the gate. The shop was written up in The New York Times and had a line out the door in its first weekend. Smith ended up having to shut down the shop for a week after being open just four days. He simply ran out of ice cream.

"We were definitely unprepared for that level of success," Smith says. "We were psychologically prepared for failure. We had plan B's in mind, but we hadn't really planned for success."

Since that summer in 2011, Ample Hills' success has only grown. Smith and his wife, Jackie Cuscuna, a high-school teacher who joined the business full time in December, now operate five shops (including kiosks) and have raised $4 million from prominent tech investors to open a factory in Brooklyn.

The factory, which will span 15,000 square feet and employ 25 to 50 people, is the centerpiece of a new expansion plan for Ample Hills.

The model going forward, Smith says, starts with the brand's first shop on Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn.

"The Vanderbilt shop makes only one ice-cream flavor on-site," he says. "It's called The Commodore, because that was Cornelius Vanderbilt's nickname," and it's a flavor inspired by his life.

Every new Ample Hills shop will have one flavor you can get only at that specific location, which you can see being made in front of you. The rest of the flavors will be made in Ample Hills' new factory.

Smith hopes this will be a way to keep the homemade feel that drew people to the original shop while allowing the company to grow — first in New York City, then into the rest of the US.

"A big differentiator for us was that we were making everything on-site, from beginning to end," he says. "People would come and stand in line and they would see me mixing eggs and milk, and chopping cookie dough up into pieces and putting it in the ice cream. You don’t often see the process."

For Smith, it added a bit of story, a narrative, to the whole endeavor. This was central for Smith. Before opening Ample Hills, he had primarily written horror-movie scripts.

"I made bad monster movies for TV," he says with a chuckle. "Ones with giant killer birds and aliens on a runaway train." His favorite is "Beneath," a movie that had a short theatrical run and features kids on a rowboat in a lake feeding one another to a monster.

Smith points out that while the kid-friendly aesthetic of Ample Hills could not be further from this "mean-spirited teen horror film," when he set about raising money from venture capitalists for Ample Hills he felt as if he were back pitching a screenplay.

"It forced my wife and I to nail down what it is that makes Ample Hills special," Smith says.

This round of investment is led by Charlie O'Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, and it includes Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, the founders of Seamless, and a syndicate headed by the cofounder of Brooklyn Brewery.

So what did they love about Ample Hills?

"A lot of excitement for the tech people was around there being so many business models," Smith says. "There isn't only one trajectory and one thing."

Smith will use the money on a three-pronged strategy. The first piece is opening more brick-and-mortar shops, but the second is getting Ample Hills ice cream into grocery stores (now at about 20) and the third is expanding direct shipments to customers.

Smith says he thinks the e-commerce aspect of selling directly to customers intrigued investors. "That's an untapped model," he says, "and not a lot of people are doing it."

Ample Hills ships to people around the country using dry ice and plastic-foam containers. Right now, that is a very small portion of the business, at only roughly 3%. And Smith says the heart of Ample Hills will always be brick-and-mortar. But the tech investors think direct shipping could be an important step, Smith says.

Whatever direction Ample Hills goes, it has already made the transition from "midlife crisis" to neighborhood favorite. Now we'll see whether the rest of the US will get as hooked on Ample Hills as Brooklyn is.

Disclosure: Lerer Hippeau Ventures managing partner Ken Lerer is an early investor in Business Insider and currently sits on the board.

SEE ALSO: The best ice cream shop in every state

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NOW WATCH: Forget the cronut — we tried the rainbow bagel that people are going nuts about on social media

Atherton, a small town in Silicon Valley, has been named America's most expensive zip code for the third year in a row, according to Forbes. 

To determine the rankings, Mountain View-based firm Altos Research calculated the median home listing prices for 28,500 zip codes across the country. Co-ops were excluded, and calculations were adjusted based on the makeup of the housing stock in each particular market. 

In Atherton, the median listing price was a whopping $10.6 million, landing it at the top of the list. The median listing price was $9.03 million at the time Forbes compiled its list for 2014. 

The town itself is quiet and secluded, and building codes prohibit commercial development. Still, it's not far from the bustling tech-centric towns of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. 

Several noted tech billionaires, including Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, and HP CEO Meg Whitman, currently own homes here. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also lived in Atherton before she moved into her new waterfall-equipped home in nearby Menlo Park in 2013. 

Here are the top 10 zip codes on Forbes' list:

1. Atherton, California (94027) — $10.6 million

2. Sagaponack, New York (11962) — $7.4 million

3. New York, New York (10012) — $7.3 million

4. Woody Creek, Colorado (81656) — $7 million

5. New York, New York (10013) — $6.1 million

6. Miami Beach, Florida (33109) — $5.6 million

7. Woodside, California (94062) — $5.5 million

8. Hidden Hills, California (91302) — $5.1 million

9. Aspen, Colorado (81611) — $5 million

10. Hillsborough, California (94010) — $4.9 million

SEE ALSO: Here's what a four-bedroom home looks like in America's most expensive markets

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Bethenny Frankel is currently balancing starring on "Real Housewives of New York City," running the Skinnygirl empire, writing best-selling books, and being mom to five-year-old daughter, Bryn.

But the 45-year-old has recently started using one word that has changed her life for the better: "no."

"I just said no to a TV show, I said no to a radio show, I said no to a clothing line. I say no all the time, more than yes," Frankel told Business Insider while promoting her latest line of healthy Skinnygirl snacks in New York City. 

Frankel stressed one point specifically,"Yes becomes so much more powerful when you say no."

"I used to be a scrambled mess, running around, not happy," she explained. "You can't do anything great that way, so now I feel like I'm really focusing my attention on what I'm doing."

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What distinguishes Southern pizza from the cheesy delights served around the world?

The secret behind the American South’s unique brand of pie is the crust, says Mellow Mushroom CEO Richard Brasch. He would know — the 200-plus location pizza chain has trademarked the term.

Southern pizza crust is neither deep-dish, like traditional Chicago-style, nor thin-crust, as most New York-style pies tend to be. Instead, it’s a league of its own — chewy, thick, garlic-y, and, incredibly enough, always made with spring water imported from the Appalachian Mountains.

“We could easily use filtered or tap water,” Brasch told Business Insider. “But, we believe it makes for a consistently excellent product.”

So, as the Atlanta-based full-service chain continues to expand beyond the Southeast, it imports Appalachian spring water everywhere that new locations open.

That’s the degree of care that Brasch says is baked into Mellow Mushroom’s brand, which positions the restaurant as a place to chill out with friends and family, as opposed to the delivery-centric model of the biggest national chains.

“A lot of people sell pizza, obviously,” says Brasch. The difference at Mellow Mushroom is a willingness to take the extra time to pay careful attention to quality.

Unlike many restaurant franchises, which can seem addicted to growth as companies frantically try to boost shareholder value, Mellow Mushroom’s CEO does in fact seem pretty mellow about expansion.

The company has recently been steadily opening 10 to 15 new locations a year, and plans to continue to do the same, neither speeding up or slowing down. According to Brasch, the company tends to attract committed, “iconoclastic” franchisees who are excited to imbue each location with its own special charm.

That’s another thing that sets Mellow Mushroom apart: Instead of sticking to a common company design, every franchisee is encouraged to explore his or her own artistic vision when opening a new location.

Some base restaurant design around a city’s history, while some find inspiration in an owner’s hobbies. An Asheville, North Carolina location used to be a gas station, while one in Durham, North Carolina is in a remodeled tobacco factory. Local art and other creations that caught the franchisee’s eye cover the restaurants, making them feel more like independent pizza joints than part of a 200-location chain.

The company’s chill but intensely dedicated approach has its roots in its founding in 1974, when three college students opened the first location in Atlanta, Georgia. Brasch worked at the company for a period in its “chaotic early days,” and says that even as the company becomes more structured, it strives to continue to nurture the hippie-inspired creativity to sets it apart from the competition.

While pizza chains like Domino’s and Pizza Hut attract and keep customers by making every location reliably identical, Mellow Mushroom has gained a cult following by being different. It’s a formula for success that Brasch admits takes more time and tinkering than that of most pizza chains — but also one that he would never think of changing.

So, as Mellow Mushroom moves into new states such as Massachusetts and New York, there is no exact image that new customers should expect. However, they can look forward to a uniquely quirky design, a dedicated owner, and, of course, Southern-style pizza you can’t find anywhere else in the world.

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NOW WATCH: Pizza Hut's new hot dog stuffed crust pizza is a 'horrible tragedy'

A year and a half ago, 24-year-old Jason Roesslein headed from Illinois to the Bay Area to start work as an engineer for Tesla Motors.

He lived with a roommate for a few months, but found it frustrating shelling out $1,250 for rent each month.

"That was supposed to be a temporary situation until I figured out where I really wanted to live," Roesslein told Business Insider. "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 lived in his "studio on wheels" — a 2006 Dodge Sprinter van — from October 2014 through March 2015, using Tesla and his gym to shower and eat most of his meals. After five months of van life, he reverted back to a more traditional lifestyle, with nearly $10,000 in extra savings, some of which he diverted toward paying off his student loans in full.

Here's what it was like:

SEE ALSO: A 23-year-old Google employee lives in a truck in the company's parking lot and saves 90% of his income

DON'T MISS: Several Google employees say they've lived in the company parking lot — here's why they did it

Roesslein toyed with the idea of a buying a box truck and turning it into a tiny home. Ultimately, the idea of owning such a big truck was too daunting to proceed.

"At the same time as I was developing those thoughts, I met a guy who works at Tesla, who at the time was living in his Subaru Forester," he says. "He'd been doing it for a year."

One night, that same coworker mentioned replacing his Subaru with a Sprinter van. "That planted the seed in my head," Roesslein explains. "It would be big enough so that you can stand up and have everything you need in there — but it's also not an atrociously large vehicle, and would be fairly maneuverable."

Roesslein thought about what he wanted out of a living situation — his own, affordable space where he could sleep and store his things — and where he wanted to be: close to work, the gym, and the social scene.

"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 writes on Medium.

This manifested itself in a 2006 Dodge Sprinter, which he bought off eBay for $13,000 and picked up in Houston, Texas — it turned out that flying to Texas and driving the Sprinter back was cheaper than buying a used van in the notoriously pricey Bay Area.

He paid for the van upfront — $500 the night he bought it on eBay, and then the remaining $12,500 when he arrived in Houston — and spent another $1,000 turning the Sprinter into a livable place.