The first line of the article is utter nonsense. The person with "$25 million" can just pay the rent up front for a year with ~0.1% of their wealth and not even

The first line of the article is utter nonsense. The person with "$25 million" can just pay the rent up front for a year with ~0.1% of their wealth and not even have to reveal their bank balance. 99% of landlords would accept that. Back in the real world, If you're renting a fancy apartment in downtown Manhattan with a few grand in the bank (e.g. you can't pay up front) you have some serious budgeting problems. The landlords/agents are doing you a favour by not allowing you to spaff away your money, IMO. I'm currently FT but have contracted in London. I've never lived in a city center apartment, it's thoroughly a luxury good. You can live half an hour away for less than half the price, or have a house with two gardens half an hour away for the same price. It would be much easier to take the article seriously if they used realistic numbers for "normal" accommodation. Personally I'd say that if you're going to go it alone then having a few months to a year saved is just par for the course. You need it in order to maintain a sense of sanity and not feel like you're completely impoverished all of the time. For most people that will entail reducing outgoings so that the number is manageable. It is, however, quite odd that I could have employed someone out of the proceeds of my business and they would be able to rent an apartment without issue. I imagine some people must do this with their spouses, for example.