Give it a try. If you do not like it, it is easy to just stop it.

Having done this, don't forget to look at all the potential state and local tax laws regarding residency (you didn't say whether its a commuting from "home" situation).

A local income tax situation (where you "make money") may change if they no longer recognize you have a residence elsewhere (where you "live").

Think of the money, time and heartache you'll save by sporadically employing an escort service in lieu of the convoluted and emotionally charged business of courtship and marriage.

That way, you won't even have to save for kids' college tuition.

Do big lodging at a hotels with airport shuttles, so you won't have to apy for parking.

Ok, so you already have a GF and don't want roommates. How about you get a small place, say a studio or 1BR apartment and share the rent with the GF. Use the nice furniture you have to furnish it. For the GF it would be a good deal because she gets to move out from her parents place, pay minimal rent, incur no expenditures for furnishings. For you it would be a good deal because you still have a real home to go to, pay less rent than now and probably less than what you'd pay in hotels, you'd also get to keep the GF who's most certainly not like to meet you in hotels and feel like a hooker all the time. Plus she would take care of the place.

Don't know what the financial situation is but if you split a $800 rent in two that sounds like a pretty do-able thing. Of course, it requires moving in with the GF which maybe you aren't ready for yet.

As far as buying a house without financing I think in principle that is an honorable idea and I wish you all the best for it. But, as long as your job is fairly safe, it might not be such a bad idea to at least have some mortgage to deduct from your taxes. It might also be a good idea to look at the market closely. How much longer are the low prices and foreclosures we have no going to last? In other words, right now you might be able to get a really sweet deal. If you wait until you have the money outright the real estate might cost 30% or so more already.

Do you have anything to work with right now? E.g. if you have 80k in cash. Buy a 100k house now while prices are cheap. Take 20k in mortgage, which can be deducted at least partially from income. Calculate how much that would save you in money per year versus paying rent and versus doing the hotel-homeless thing. Also consider the equity and standing that being a house owner brings you with a bank and the better credit status you will get. Possibly tell your GF to move in and pay a nominal rent (say half or a third or what she would usually pay). This will off-set at least the cost of utilities etc. Continue saving money. Pay off the rest of the mortgage as soon as possible so your house is entirely debt free. In two or three years you might be looking at a house which is entirely paid off and has increased in value. Sell the house and start the same kind of circle with a new property slowly working your way up.

The entry point right now is very good. I was hoping to be able to sell my place in the rather stable Austin market this year and with the proceeds and gains buy another place in a market that has crashed and is only waiting to recover. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible. I hope next year the prices will still be affordable when I am actually looking for something.

Till

I was voluntarily "homeless" for about a year and a half, after I realized that I was paying a month's rent for an apartment I stayed in maybe 2-3 nights per month. My mail was redirected to the office, the bulk of my stuff was stored at a friend's place, and I spent most of my nights at a service apartment near the client in Bangkok. I came back to SIN once or twice a month for the weekend, dropped by my friend's place to change the wardrobe a bit, and stayed in hotels, which were very affordable at the time.

I kept this up for a while even after the Bangkok project ended, but the logistics started to get a little stressful when I had to shuttle between projects in two different countries, plus hotel prices also started to escalate pretty dramatically, and in the end I got my own apartment again.

I don't regret the experience: the savings were pretty remarkable, I got real good at packing my carry-on, and it's interesting to see how little you actually need on the road to manage and even feel like home... but I doubt I'd do it again.

Sounds VERY interesting. Packing tips and your packing list for that time would be super helpful and highly appreciated. Pretty PLEASE!. :)

Till

Er, that depends.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...s-problem.html :D

I agree with tfar that the idea of paying cash for a house is noble, but the math might work out so that the income tax deduction is worth the cost. If you are considering carrying a mortgage at all, interest rates are so incredibly low right now and it's a buyers' market.

I would love to sell my condo and take advantage of the cheaper, plentiful housing stock but unfortunately there are already five condos in my building for sale. I am very concerned that when we finally buy a house interest rates will be much higher than they are now.

Try the hotel thing for a few months and see if you like it--it's easy to stop the experiment at any time. I'm interested to see how this turns out for you.

There are other threads floating around from people who've done this.

I'd think carefully about the storage thing. How much stuff do you actually have that matters? If you're storing a bunch of furniture and stuff, when you retrieve it from storage you'll likely say "why was I storing this crap", much better to just sell it and start over fresh when you decide to return to a normal life.

The big issue is storage for a couple boxes of all that paperwork that we tend to collect - tax returns, etc. If you can get it down to a manageable size you can get a safe deposit box at your bank - they actually cost less than you might think.

You will need an address for certain things. Will a drop box always work? Can you use that for a driver's license, etc? I honestly don't know.

If you plan to use the same base every weekend, I'd talk to a nice hotel in your area, the nights you need the room are exactly their "off" nights (Friday-Saturday) and you might be able to cut a deal. They will also store a couple suitcases for the week.

How big a wardrobe to you have? My double closet is stuffed. I do need to pare down, but even with work clothes, play clothes, summer stuff, winter stuff, I don't think I could pare down enough to make this work.

I agree that one big issue is never having a place to just crash and heat up that bowl of mac and cheese. Eating out (or having takeout) every single day gets old for me really fast, and I begin to have trouble even after a week of vacation in a hotel.

Note that at the time I worked in the tropics, so no need for bulky winter clothing, and for work I rarely if ever needed to wear a tie, much less a jacket. But this is what I usually had with me:

- 3 collared shirts
- 3 T-shirts/polo shirts
- 2 pairs of trousers (usually one khaki Dockers plus one dark suit trousers, both of which could be worn to work)
- 1 pair of dress shoes
- 1 pair of black sneakers (can be worn to the gym, out on town and even to work in a pinch)
- 1 light sweater for planes and chilly meeting rooms
- A week's supply of semi-disposable socks, undershirts and underwear (in South-East Asia, it's usually cheaper to buy new than to get them laundered in hotels...)
- 1 pouch of toiletries
- 1 pouch of electronic gadgets (headseats, chargers, adapters, etc)

That's pretty much it? (Laptop, business documents, passport etc go into a separate carrying case.) Everything fits nicely into a regulation rollaboard, esp. when you use the space within the spare pair of shoes for storing socks etc. The single best packing tip I can give you is to figure out your routine, so everything has its preordained space: then you know where to find it and where it goes, and can pack in 5 min flat and not lose/forget anything.

Consider how you'll do your laundry, since realistically you're not going to have access to a washing machine. In my case, laundry at the service apt was free, as was 3 pcs/day at most Marriotts when you're Plat, and at both of these I could leave it over the weekend and pick it up when I got back.

Be careful with the storage back home. I used an un-airconditioned spare room, and much of my stuff went moldy from sitting around in boxes for a year. Clothes are best stored in a closet still wrapped in plastic from the dry cleaner's.

Good luck and enjoy the homeless life :D

This has been a very interesting discussion to say the least and again let me address some of the suggestions:

- I've already undertaken a huge "cleaning" and the only things I will need to store are my pickup truck, and the rest of the stuff (outside of furniture, which will be sold) can fit into the cab and bed of my truck.

- I can easily pack for a week in just a backpack, I travel very lightly and live light as well. it really is liberating not being weighed down by junk and trinkets.

- I cannot live with my g/f, she comes from a very traditional household and culture, so that is outside of this discussion. She could hold some of my clothes in her closet.

- I'm not asking for financial advice on the house purchase. Paying mortgage interest just to write off a little income does not work for me.

If your girlfriend can hold your clothes, why can't she just give you her address as your official residence for postal purposes?

It hasn't been said one way or the other in this thread, but surely you know how to use priceline bids and save half on hotels? Hate to see anybody spend $200 on a $60 room.

I would tend to think that this would be ideal if the OP is very indepentent and really has no close ties to anyone. That being said, over the long run it will probably get old as at some point I would assume that the OP would want a spouse/SO and maybe a family. At very least, the vast majority of people want some base of friends.

The OP is going to need to coordinate a good airline fare and an inexpensive hotel room. Generally, airport hotels and extended stay hotels have good weekend rates, particularly if one uses Priceline or Hotwire. However, the latter normally does not have shuttle services and the OP would need a rental car. But the extended stay option gives a feel of a real home.

This life won't be easy or expenseive at times (like around peak travel dates). But to the OP try it for six months or a year.

There are a few threads that address the idea of being "homeless" for a bit.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...onsultant.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l-so-much.html

Just out of prurient interest. You say you don't really care where you spend your weekends as long as its close to an airport, yet you also have a Girl Friend. Where does she fit into this picture if you don't care where you spend your weekends and your weeks are spent traveling for work?