A Tracy Chapman song inspired a Calgary man to move into a trailer and live without a fixed address in order to become debt-free.
Geoff Westlock has lived in a trailer for two and a half years, after amassing $42,000 in debt from school loans, high-interest credit cards and car payments.
One night, as he was pulling into his driveway, the Tracy Chapman song “Fast Car” came on the radio. The lyrics struck a chord with Westlock.
“’Leave tonight or live and die this way,’ which to me means there is no good time for change. Just do it,” he told CTV Calgary.
In a radical move, Westlock moved into a 20-foot trailer that he has to park in different spots twice a day.
But, after almost three years of minimalist nomadic living, Westlock is 11 months away from debt freedom and his credit is excellent, with a score around 800.
Westlock hopes to inspire others to take control of their financial lives, with or without a trailer.
“You don’t have to live in a trailer to do this,” he said, “You just have to downgrade your lifestyle temporarily to upgrade your finances.”
As his parting words of wisdom, Westlock told CTV Calgary: “Just decide to do it and do it right now or you’ll never do it, because it’s never a good time.”
With a report from CTV Calgary’s Bill Macfarlane
