It’s not every day the world’s richest man trades a mansion for a metal box. Yet Elon Musk—worth hundreds of billions and famous for reshaping industries—now calls a 375-square-foot prefab house home. The same man who builds Mars rockets and electric cars chose a $50,000 setup beside his launch site in Texas. Why? The reasons go beyond minimalism. They reveal how Musk thinks, lives, and measures success in ways that might just make you question your own definition of “enough.” Stick around—this story proves that even a billionaire can find freedom in downsizing.
From Mega-Mansions To Minimalism
Just a few years ago, Musk owned multiple luxurious properties across California, including a $29 million mansion in Hillsborough and another in Bel-Air once belonging to actor Gene Wilder. But in 2020, he shocked everyone with a tweet: “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.” True to his word, he sold off every mansion, netting more than $100 million in the process.
To most billionaires, a collection of homes represents status. To Musk, it had become a distraction. Maintaining sprawling estates meant staff and attention were divided between assets instead of innovation. Downsizing, he explained, was about clearing mental clutter. The decision reflected the same philosophy driving his companies—simplify systems, reduce inefficiency, and focus on what actually matters.
Life Beside The Rockets
Today, Musk’s “primary home” is a $50,000 prefabricated unit made by Boxabl, a Las Vegas startup that builds foldable modular homes. Roughly 20 feet by 20 feet, the structure includes all of the basics such as a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room packed into one compact, modern space. His endorsement—intentional or not—turned the company into a global talking point about affordable, rapid-deployment housing.
What makes this small home fascinating isn’t just its size—it’s its location. His front door opens practically onto the SpaceX launch site, where rockets are built and tested for Mars missions. Living within walking distance allows him to stay within the chaos he thrives on. The richest man on Earth is, quite literally, living where his rockets take off.
Why Musk Says Owning Too Much Is A Trap
To understand Musk’s reasoning, it helps to look at how he views possessions. “Things kind of weigh you down,” he once said, calling personal assets “an attack vector” that people can use to criticize excess. The fewer targets he presents, the freer he feels to work without scrutiny over material indulgence.
There’s also a practical side. Musk divides his time among Tesla in Austin, SpaceX in Texas, and X (formerly Twitter) in California. Owning multiple estates never made logistical sense. Renting a tiny, movable unit keeps life flexible. It’s minimalist living scaled to billionaire proportions—except without the mansion to return to.
The Bigger Message
So why does it matter that Elon Musk sleeps in a $50,000 box? Because it rewrites what “having it all” means. The world’s richest person deliberately shed extravagance to focus on his mission. If you measure wealth by how much space it takes to store your stuff, Musk’s lifestyle might look absurd. But if you measure by how much freedom you can buy, the richest man alive may have figured something out. Maybe the ultimate luxury isn’t owning everything—it’s needing almost nothing.
