stay in the client city, use the flight money for hotels.

I know of people who were based in the NYC office and lived at home in Chicago. Since they flew out anyway during the week, it didnt matter where they flew in from. I just dont know how that affected his initial training and stuff if you have local training to attend.

You have to be a boss at networking I'd imagine, if you dont come to the office and never see or meet anyone new.

That 100k figure was for bankers, not consultants. You won't get anywhere near that.

also, as a consultant, and if you happen to be doing the "right" type of consulting, you could be picking up a side gig on the weekend and make some extra bucks. Some can range from $30~60 per hour.

I would applaud you if you could only spend 5k/year, but I know college kids that go through that much in a semester.

If you do what I suggested and stay at the client city on weekends, you might not even have to pay for food, if your flights are expensive enough, and your hotel is cheap enough.

The hell do I know... Depends on what you pay for the house, what you charge for it and what your vacancy rate is.

still working out the math, but 16 days minimum vacant (out of town, M thru R) per month, city is Houston, TX.

Yeah you wouldn't get anywhere near that. Using an above posters math,

77000 x 2 = 154000

154000 * (1-.30% tax) = 107800

Even 1k rent is 12k a year or about 25k for two years. Then you have food and misc. costs which are at a minimum another 12-20k a year. Even if you're frugal you'll be lucky to say 12k or another 25k for two years.

That leaves you with 57800 in savings after two years. Most consultants I know aren't that frugal and save about 10-30k after two years.

bro just have fun and get a sweet pad, work your ass off in hopes of developing opportunities/security so that these "savings" the first 2 years will become menial in the big picture.

why is your username slim_"IBD"_shady when your a consultant....

anyway, saving a 100k in 2yrs with your starting job = WILL NOT HAPPEN

This might work for the first few months, but after that I'd imagine having a place of your own for the weekend would be a necessity. I know I would lose it after living out of a suitcase for a few weeks. Also, sometimes you are staffed on a local project, which means no hotel or airline budget.

That being said, it is difficult to swallow spending $1000/month or more on a place you only sleep at 4 nights a week. Living somewhere cheaper or with 3-4 roommates can help bring down the cost, and since you're gone half of the time you're less likely to get sick of living with 3-4 other people. Some first-year consultants also live in their parents house for the first few months to a year to build up some cash, which isn't that bad since you're only there for 3 days a week.

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i think you're underestimating how depressed you'd feel living with your parents in your 20s.

You will have no social life if you decide to stay at the client site every weekend, decide to live with your parents for the weekend (unless your parents live in a neighborhood you yourself actually want to live in), or go with the airbnb route (mostly because you live alone in a hotel the rest of the week as is).

You will go crazy if you are working as a consultant and have zero social life.

Why don't u get your own apartment and rent out via airbnb to make some of the money back. Essentially choices #2 or #3. I'm actually airbnb'ing my whole stay in San Francisco for an internship this semester and I can agree logistically it is unsustainable for long term, mainly finding a place to store all your shit that is easily accessible

Btw, I believe there are 2 elements missing from the calculation in this discussion.

1. Company is at least responsible for 16 out of 30 days of my personal expenses. And Texas has no state income tax.

2. 80k in Texas is equivalent to 130k in NY, if you are always having that 6 digit figure mentality.

FWIW I averaged spending $800-1200/month during my summer in consulting in a low COL city. Saving $100k is feasible, but probably unlikely.

Sublet from someone that lives close to your home office, get a roomie and split the rent for like $500 a month

It's a question of what kind of lifestyle you're looking to live. Do you have friends in your base city? Do you want to go out on the weekends with them? If saving is your main concern and the answers to the previous questions are yes, find the cheapest apartment possible and go live life during the weekend. You aren't going to be on client sites from Sunday evening to Friday night all the time. This definitely falls within the minority. If it's the case where you are looking to spend all of your time buried in your project and want to stay in the client site's city as much as possible, I would recommend shacking up with a friend on the weekends or booking into a sleazy hotel for the days you are back in town.

Bust your ass during the week. Spend a little money to get a place you're proud of and can hang on the weekends. No reason not to enjoy the best years of your life.

I agree with 2x2 Matrix. Living with your parents (assuming you have a good relationship with them and they live close to your office) is likely the only way to save a boatload of money without sacrificing your sanity. I originally was of the mindset that I'd never do that, but even "independence" has a price (especially when your parents live 1.5 miles away from the office and close to the airport).

If that isn't an option for you, I'd try to find a group of friends to rent a house with. Depending on the city and size/location of house, you could easily get rent down to $600-800 per month (quite reasonable). Even with Airbnb you are likely spending at least $75 per weekend. That amounts to $300 at least per month, not to mention the time cost of figuring that out every weekend. Similarly, if you're planning on trying to be so frugal in the first couple years of your working life, then I doubt you want to shell out the down payment for a mortgage at this time.

And, as far as the $77k salary per year, this number appears a gross understatement. While I understand bonus pay is far smaller in IBD than banking (at least historically...we'll see how that goes in the future), that data point would equate to almost no performance or signing bonus. Plus, the retirement packages (which could count as savings) and the benefits could play into that $100k goal as well. So, if we assume $100k salary + retirement savings (a fair approximation given the up to $16k performance bonus and up to at least 6% 401k plan), then the save $100k in my first two years seems plausible. IBD is a great gig, but not the only way to make a lot of money out of school (and even more questionable as a way to achieve long-term wealth).