NYC living, realistic or a fairy tale?
Hi All, I am a recent college grad from semi-target who will be starting at a tier 2 consultancy (Deloitte/Accenture/IBM/OW) next Monday! While there are a lot of helpful threads on WSO about finding a place to live, cost of living, and overall happiness while working, I wanted some help for my own scenario.
*Scenario: *
- Working in NYC within my company's financial services sector --> Less Travel? Hopefully getting a wide variety of projects so that I don't get pigeonholed into one service, but being in FS could mean less travel.
- I am going to training in a different state next Monday until September and will start going into the office fulltime or to my client site (still unknown to me).
So what is the big deal?
- I grew up on long island about 45-50 minutes away from NYC and have commuted for past internships, horrific. Since I don't know my project location, I am unsure if moving in right away would be a waste of my money. However, after talking with my parents and friends who have commuted, they stated that I would hate it full-time. So, the overarching question is, should I commute and save money or move right in?
Key Statistics About this Annoying Decision:
- $74,000 salary
- $7,000 signing bonus
- possible bonus
- monthly train ticket to NYC from LI ~$400
- rent prices range from $1k-$2k
- I want to save/invest ~20% post tax. Possible? Realistic? (Already trade on robinhood etc, just not too high stakes)
-** Have been talking about moving in with 2 friends, an IB Analyst at EB and another kid getting his masters. One of the guys family members works as a developer and could potentially have the hookup for $1-1.5k/month.**
- ^^ Money shouldn't be an issue in terms of rentn for them, but I don't know if it will be for me. I am making better money than a lot of people, but I don't know if it is worth it to move into the city and drop a large chunk of change on rent when I might not even be there M-Th!
If anyone has any insight I would love to hear it. While this sounds like a no brainier, I am still indecisive as to whether or not it makes sense to be like lil' dicky and save dat money. I also am not a total narp/muppet and would like to make some friends from work/go out, which would suck having to commute home at 11 PM just to wake up at 6 to go into the city.
Help a monkey out!
Do it, it will be fun and commuting stinks. Make it a point to live below your means and save as much as you can.
Do it. You aren't living an adult life until you leave your parent's house. Rent in NYC isn't bad if you get roommates and it sounds like you might have a connect for that anyway.
Professional life is also way, way more enjoyable when you live in NYC and don't have to rush to catch the train. Now you can stay out until 1AM and still get 5-6 hours of sleep before going to the office.
Move to NYC and start living.
I know what you are all saying and I really want to do it, I just don't know if saving that extra rent money really matters. Will the 20k I don't save make a difference in my life later? Probably not a dramatic one.
Does anyone have positive stories about staying home for a bit? Just trying to hear all sides
When will you find out if you will be travelling? If you are gone 3/4 days out of the week due to your job, then staying at home might be worth it.
This decision also depends on personal factors like your interests/commute time/relationship status/what your parents are like.
Will be training for 3 weeks in a different state. I will find out in about 6 weeks.
Living at home can be very tempting as a consultant, especially if you will be travelling to a client site every week M-Th. I was in consulting for 4 years, and spent the last year living at home to save some cash to travel, etc. before my MBA. it did the trick, but unless you have a specific goal like that in mind, I wouldn't recommend it. You are going to miss out on a lot of 'post-grad' life, which can be really fun. Think of it as college-lite, where everyone is excited to go out all the time, but now you actually have disposable income. You're going to be working a lot in consulting, so you might miss some of the action. Don't live a train rid away so you miss even more.
I also know a bunch of people who started out living with their parents to save some money right out of undergrad. none of them lasted longer than a year.
at least your roommates will be cool.
New York is LAME and BORING! I prefer NEW JERSEY because of it's QUALITY OF LIFE and it's NATURAL SCENERY.
This made me spit out my water
Lol... dude just live in the city. Your weekends will be exponentially better. Your salary is more than adequate for saving and the rent you'll be paying.
You sound lame and boring.
Sounds like you're in the B&T club.
Live in the city.
If you travel Mon - Thurs, you should get comped for food, you won't have to pay NYC prices for weekly food/expenses and you can go out in NYC Thur/Fri/Sat, when it's the most fun anyway.
It's a win win either way if you travel or not, do it. NYC is a blast.
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