How much travel will you have vs. time in your office? For example, over the 12 years I've been a consultant with my current employer, my travel time has ranged from 3-4 days/month as a backoffice grunt, to 13-14 at the most hectic as a project manager, back down to around 7-9 days/month now as a principal consultant. But there are many people on FT who travel 16+ work days each month.

I found that living alone, being gone more 11 weekdays per month was the point where my basic household chores get neglected and/or inefficient. For example, stopping to pick up dinner and spending $15, because I don't have any food in the house worth cooking or defrosting, because I never made it to a grocery store in a timely manner to get more supplies.

If you live alone, think about your mail delivery. Consider getting yourself a PO Box (cheaper but less flexible) or a UPS Store box (more expensive), so you can pick up most of your mail on your schedule, not theirs. I learned this lesson the hard way when I moved from an apartment building with a management office to a townhouse.

I like having a dry cleaners which will fold and bag/box laundered shirts - mine charges me an extra $0.50/shirt. Having properly folded and packed shirts makes it much easier to transport them in a 22" rollon. Set aside funds to have hotels launder the occasional shirt or press a suit for you - in the long run, it beats checking luggage.

If you are a big TV watcher and have high-speed internet at home, get yourself a TiVo and a Slingbox. The software loads on a $5 USB thumbdrive without installing anything on your employer's laptop, and you can control your TiVo and watch programming from your laptop.