Live in a Nice Studio <1 minute walk to the Office if you’d be too bucket?

Spent about a year in a us bb in London where I did a 30 minute morning computer and 15 minute evening Uber back home. Over the year I lost my abs, gained a ton of weight, ate super unhealthily and basically never had time to go to the gym besides the weekends which felt horrible each time because I could never build it in into a habit due to infrequency.

Now have the chance to live in a nice studio in a world famous new build which is 1 minute door to door with an incredible gym in the building etc, but my rent would go gone from £1,000 per month -> £2,300 per month. As an analyst 2, this means I’d be spending about 45% of my post tax pay on rent vs 20%

In my shoes, if you genuinely thought it’d massively improve your mental health, lifestyle, happiness and drastically improve chances at top bucket/pe prep and exits, would you do it?

This is in Canary Wharf London - you can get very slightly cheaper places a bit further out but not even close to as nice, shittier gyms, uninspiring surroundings etc

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Yes, go for it. Smart way to spend your salary TBH. 45 min/day is a huge waste of time when you annualized it. 

 
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Nah. You’ll never feel separated from your work. That’s not the main reason not to though. Only 45 minutes total in a commute is not bad considering rent is 20% of your salary. Now you’ll be paying 45%. I’d keep looking for something that is more reasonable for you.

 

You got me there, I do not. However, is it safe to assume that a big reason why you’re in IBD is for the money? You’re willing to trade your time in for that money, so I’d think you would want to keep as much of that money for yourself as possible (after tax.) If you strongly believe that getting those 20 hours back in exchange for an additional 25% in rent is going to make the difference, then do it. I’ve never worked in IBD or done the hours so take my perspective with a grain of salt.

 

It’s not that I’m hugely particular about the aesthetics, but if I wanted to live literally right next to there is no other option of another residential building

I get that as an Analyst it’s a lot, but doing the math now, the £1000 apartment is 1.) signed during covid so would be about £1150 now, 2.) After a very late night you inevitably pay for an Uber in the morning (averages about 1/3 of the time I’d sat, so an additional £10-12*6-7 = £70, gym membership of £50, lunches / breakfasts (I’d typically buy lunch most work days say £150 a month and when you’re running late due to a long night you might pick up breakfast too)

So the fairer comparison would be £1420 (shared flat) vs £2100-2200 for a comfortable studio

 

It's on the high-end, however since you are contemplating it; just do it. Most-likely this studio you talking about is being managed by a renown agency. You might be able to sign a 12 month tenancy agreement with a 6 month break provision, so if you find yourself still not utilizing the gym and/or not reap the expected benefits as much as you would like to despite the steeply increased monthly expense, you can simply switch again within 6 months from the initial letting day. PM which building this is for, many of them have a reference discount; if an existing tenant references a new tenant, both receive a discount on their rent (up to GBP 1000).

 

For IB, I totally think this makes it worth it.  45 min a day is a massive percentage of the free time you have every day, and honestly you won't notice 15k more out of our bank account if you're feeling good between working out and having time to unwind.  I would just check to see if there is better value elsewhere (e.g a building a few blocks further away with say 500/m cheaper total cost) but overall nobody I know has been mad making this type of tradeoff as an analyst.

 

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