In what many would call an extreme move, when he was 33, Christopher Gerhart took up residence at a nearby prison.

“At the time, there was a Bachelor Officers’ Quarters that was on the prison grounds,” says Gerhart, now 50, who lives in Arkansas in the US. “It cost $25 per month for a shared room in a college-dormitory-type building.

“There was a bathroom down the hall, exercise equipment and a common area with a TV and a fireplace. It was admittedly bare bones, but it limited my housing and utility costs to $25 monthly.”

Eighteen months later, Gerhart had a substantial deposit saved up. He kept his spot on prison grounds for six more months while he had significant renovations done on the house he purchased, and with all the money he’d saved, he owned his condo outright in less than five years.

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