Living With Parents As Consultant

Is it feasible to live at home as a first-year consultant? I'll be at a firm where I know I will be traveling every week.

My friends have told me I'm being cheap, but it seems like a great way to save money. My commute would be 35-50 minutes on Fridays, travelling from the suburbs of my office city. My parents are easygoing, and the alternative of coming home to an empty, overpriced apartment on Thursday for 2-3 nights sounds depressing.

Are there any problems that could arise from this? The biggest problem I can see is that it will be quicker for me to fly out from a different airport than where my colleagues will be flying out of -- I'm concerned about whether this will detract from camaraderie and relationships (the ol' airport team stories).

Thanks,
Jake

 

Feasible, sure. I know people who have done it short term or long term. It will kind of suck if you get staffed locally (Murphy's Law says it'll happen to you), but that's a bridge you can cross when/if you get there.

Logistics concerns should be minor, unless your manager is an asshole.

Teams often are multi-office, or don't travel together. Example: My team right now is all from the same metro area. One drives to the client, another flies from a secondary airport more convenient to her apartment in the suburbs, the others take Acela, but sometimes not even the same train.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 
F. Ro Jo:
freeloader:
Only doesn't work if you have a significant other. Otherwise highly feasible.

only works if you have a significant other. otherwise good luck getting laid.

You'll have these nifty things called Starwood points. Much more impressive taking a chick to a nice hotel for the night rather than your studio apartment with 2 roommates.

 

It's what I'm doing, and I'd say nearly half of my class that is originally from the area is living at home. You will save so much money, especially when you consider you won't be paying for food during the week. Obviously the major down side is the social life on the weekends, but I just crash at a friend's place or wait until I'm sober enough to drive back. It depends on your relationship with your parents too... mine are pretty hands off so it works.

 
Best Response

^Haha didn't consider this until now. I'm not sure if current relationship will last after graduation, but assuming it doesn't, I still think it kinda makes sense to move home.

The way I see it, I'll have the privacy of a room to myself during the week in the client city. If I need a private room on the weekends, a hotel (or her place) for even say one night a week is still cheaper than an apartment I'd rarely use. I'm all for growing up and gaining independence, but living alone and managing an apartment by myself sounds horrifying -- and I actually have something I'd like to do with the money if I could save up.

I have somewhat geeky interests (jazz, app development, cinematography, education), so I'm not extremely concerned about the bar scene except for socializing with coworkers and watching games. I love house parties, but I'm not sure how much that happens as an early twenty-something outside of college.

Thanks for the responses!

 

Live at home, save enough money to go on vacation, take ridiculous flex travel to Paris/Istanbul and not feel guilty for paying 1500+ for an apartment you stay in for 6 nights a month.

But then again, the parents live 5 min from airport, have a gf with her place, never going to be staffed on local cases if i don't want to. So makes perfect sense for me to stay at home

 
freeloader:
SlikRick:
Living at home is great and all until you get staffed on a three-month local engagement. At that point, I guarantee you'll want your own space.

Murphy's Law notwithstanding, this happens fairly rarely.

Depends on where you're based and what firm you're with. I known plenty of consultants at BCG & Bain who were staffed on local projects for their entire A/AC years. So depends.

 

This is a lifestyle question that you need to answer for yourself. Yes, obviously you will save money by living with your parents in NYC. That being said, you can certainly afford to live in NYC on a typical starting salary (70-75k + bonus), especially with a roommate. Weigh the options for yourself.

 

It's a lifestyle choice but living with your parents post-grad might sounds not so pretty to your new social group. Try finding roommates and live in neighborhood like astoria, harlem, forest hills.

 

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