Working in consulting with no home possible?

With 3-4-5 it's theoretically possible but will likely be more trouble than it's worth. The simpler option is to get a cheap-as-f*ck room instead of an apartment. Just to illustrate, an apt in NYC can easily be $2000/month, but you can get a room in Hoboken or Jersey City for $600/month and have a place of your own to crash when you're back in town.

I feel like not having a true "home" to decompress in during weekends and day off would be draining. One of those subtle stresses that would wear you out after a while.

1st years in consulting generally make more than enough to cover a modest place in manhattan, it becomes way more trouble than its worth. If you do it, you'll just end up with a heap ton of cash, and no home? Doesn't really make sense.

Having a home benefits you way more than you think because people start to take shit for granted.

If you don't care about family/friends it is very possible, and also if accumulating cash is your end goal regardless of how you get there.

If you are on a Mon-Fri project, you can technically take a room Sunday night and leave Friday morning, which leaves you with 2 nights to figure out. You could pay out of pocket, use your points, or stay at a cheaper hotel/motel/airbnb.

Now, that's assuming all your projects would require travel. I know a kid who started doing this until he got staffed for 6 months on back-to-back local projects. He ended up renting a cheap place.

You all make good points. Thinking about it a bit more, you're right, it's important to have a home even if it's just a cheaper place. There's always the chance you land a local project and then you'll definitely need a place when that happens. Family and friends is another factor.

The Airbnb option only works well if you have a Doorman or someone who can let the people in and out and arrange cleaning etc... For a high priced apartment it would surely be worth it though, since you often times can command 150$+ a night. And the Summer/Winter fluctuation is not as high as in other cities, since there is always a lot of people visiting!

You can definitely do it. Don't throw your money away. Friday night you can hit the bar and choose a girl with whom you will go to her place and cook a nice steak. Worst case scenario: you're surrounded by whales, then you can rent a car and sleep in it comfortably. During the day on the weekend, you can hit the gym, shower, and go work on your things in a public library or Starbucks. Never stop making money and stop throwing it away on things like rent, utilities, trash surcharge, cable, internet, sewage surcharge, etc.

I did it early in my career for over a year. I wasn't a consultant and it was a more unique situation where I could leave a decent amount of my clothes in my office (where I never was so my assistant would literally send me underwear) and the firm paid for my weekend hotels but it was a pretty cool lifestyle. I typically stayed at the same hotel in each city around the globe and really got to know the staff there. I was practically family at the Connaught in London.

As an experience I'd say go for it if you can make it work financially. It was kind of a cool feeling to be without a home, like a rolling stone... It also keeps you from buying too much shit that you don't need when you're young so you can save on two fronts: no rent and you don't spend your money on useless stuff. And if it doesn't work for you it's easy to just rent a place.

Hm, maybe it's doable then, depending on what kind of projects you get. I'll play things by ear before renting a place then.

Also, keep in mind it's easier to live a nomadic lifestyle when you're secure on a longer term project, or have built a network within your firm so that you won't be unstaffed for extended periods of time. You don't want to have to airbnb every night for a month or more before you get staffed.