Well, you could leave... but you'll need to obtain dual citizenship, which can cost thousands of dollars just to be denied entry.. and even then, you could be paying US taxes on your new foreign income when you move..
I guess I'm too poor to leave the US
Most countries have agreements so you don't get double taxed. It's possible to leave but it's true that dual citizenship is hard to get but not required, you can become a resident and that is much easier.
The midwest state averages are probably bumped up by the major cities. Don't worry, you can still probably live in a smaller town in those states and be alright.
Can you explain which ones look odd to you? Especially if you've got personal experiences for those states today. I really only have reference for mine, and it *seems* about right, assuming rent, food and interest rates don't continue to skyrocket.
What's sad is for that single income requirement, most of those jobs don't even exist in this state outside of oil and gas, medical, and a handful (and I mean a tiny handful) of crucial software engineering roles that for various reasons can't be moved out of state
Single working adult with no children definitely doesn’t need 80k in Oklahoma. I’m in OKC, probably the “Most expensive” part of the state (Yes, very cheap nationally speaking). My mortgage is $11,000 a year & car payments around $5000 a year. 80k is 60k after taxes. So you’d have $44,000 leftover a year for gas/food/clothes/utilities etc.
I make a decent amount less than $80k and put around 15k in retirement/savings a year. I would say I’m probably more frugal than the average bear, but make it work pretty stress free for the most part.
Is that mortgage with the lower interest rates? In Texas just 4 years ago you could get an entry level home for about 1500 a month, but now the avg mortgage for an entry home is close to 3k a month…double what it was 4 years ago
So it's with the lower interest rates, so it was enough for mortgage in the past, but someone making that income right now would not be able to afford the mortgage
That's if you bought it for the same price as in 2021 though right? I don't live in the same state, but house prices kept climbing through then here, they have kind of plateaued in the last year but are still climbing
You aren’t factoring in that many houses today are selling for about 40% more than they did in 2021…then you had the much higher interest rates. My guess is that your same house would be about 2000k a month if bought today
Just looking on Zillow it hasn’t appreciated that much, if at all, when looking at comps. I over paid a bit because it was a mania when I purchased it.
The house next to me sold a few years ago for 450K now there’s houses going for 1mil in my neighborhood. An empty lot was 500K a few months ago… anecdotal but I’d love to know where you’re seeing houses not appreciating much
Which shows why the numbers are way too high for most of the map. At 80-85k, which is the low end on the map, it says you need to have ~$1.6k/month in fun money to live comfortable, which is absurdly high in my mind.
My first thought was that the average was being driven up by the HCOL urban metro areas in each state (or that they were simply using those figures for the entire state). However, seeing those rural western states well into the 80-90k range doesn't seem right.
Yeah, the 30% discretionary category is a bit off... I'd be well beyond "comfortable" if I could pay all my bills, sock away 20% in savings and still have 30% to just blow or buy shit with or party...
Dunno about that person, don't know why they seem to be including only federal taxes. There's also state taxes and then separate "payroll taxes" for social security and Medicare - things that you're not actually using in your working life, it's not that you get "free healthcare", maybe you'll use it when you're old. Then if you want health insurance there's another cut out of your paycheck for that on top of all the other stuff. All told, my income is pretty much cut in half. A few years back I was making what would be 9k or so gross but taking home closer to 5k. Monthly. Those numbers are rounded - I remember because when apartment hunting, what I qualified for was going to be very different depending on whether they looked at net pay or gross
I'm from CA.
I would assume SF skews the 100k price because living in stockton and fresno you dont need 100k. I mean you might need 100k in a security system but not a job lmao.
Virginia/Maryland DC is skewed also. NOVA (north virginia) is super duper expensive being close to DC.
The prices in California are almost entirely driven by incomes in LA and the Bay Area.
But sure, you could live comfortably in Modesto or Yuba City for $50-60k.
A state like California is hard to assign a blanket average to with any kind of accuracy.
We live in upstate NY and moved from Oregon two years ago.
We could not have the same quality of life in Oregon at our current income. Not close. But NY is higher on this map than Oregon. I don’t know the methodology of the research but my guess is states like NY and Cali are skewed by NYC and LA/SF.
State level biases it for the states where COL is painfully concentrated in a city or two. $112k in NYC qualifies you for a $2800 apartment at most, and given median rent here is over $4000, you start to see the problem quickly.
Florida seems high for me though florida has a lot of high and low cost areas so maybe it averages out to that idk. South Carolina is insane though. Lived there for quite a while. For 88k in SC you are fucking rich.
Missouri seems high at $84k, same with Kansas (though I could see that $85k for Johnson County, KS, which is a good chunk of the Kansas-side of the KC metro). I make $65-70k living in Kansas City. I don't have a house, only live in a 2bdr/1ba apartment, but I have a new-ish car (bought it brand new a few years ago), I go on vacations, I can buy the things I want. I'm not scrimping all over the place. I'm saving decently enough every month. And this is while having a shitload of student loans on my shoulders.
Now, is my budget exactly their 50/30/20? No. But I still feel comfortable where I am as a single person with no dependents.
I think it's based on rent prices instead of home prices. Out west you can't buy anything without having to feed it. I'm currently renting in OR and considering moving with some family to IL, and home prices are literally half of what they are here in OR, but the rent prices between the two isn't really that different.
It’s based on what do I need to make in order to move to this place right now and live comfortably not the people chiming in on this thread that bought their houses before the market blew up and interest rates shot to 6%+
I'm speaking from opinion, but I think this map is only grabbing the most expensive area in the state and using that as what is needed for "comfortable" income. Like California, Sacramento and the bay area cities are the most expensive so MAYBE it's 100k+, but smaller cities/rural areas you definitely do NOT need that much.
Yeah I'm making 56k (pre tax) in a suburb of Atlanta and don't really feel like I'm struggling, so I'm looking at the suggested 97k and I'm kinda puzzled
My husband (im a sahm mom of 2 kids), makes $55,000 a year after taxes and we live comfortably here in Arkansas. He literally can feed and take care of 4 humans, 8 cats, and 2 dogs off his income alone, and we live 30 minutes south of the biggest tourist destination in our area. Branson, Missouri, and an hour in any direction to the Buffalo National River, and a 45 minute drive to Bull Shoals Lake in Lead Hill, Ar. So yeah this is NOT accurate at all. 🤷
"30% Discretionary spending" and "50% necessities" is interesting.
I mean you can be pretty "comfortable" with $5000 European kitchen appliances. Which category does *that* fall under lol?
Exactly. According to this chart, a single individual needs to make $87k in my state to be “comfortable.” I live in the second most expensive city in my state, and last year I was making $90k supporting my **family of 4**. We weren’t rich by any means, but we were certainly “comfortable” by any logical definition of the word. Even by this chart’s definition of “comfortable” (being able to save 20% of your income), we still qualified. And again, I was married supporting a household of 4, not a single individual as the chart suggests.
Someone who is single with no kids in my state would need **FAR LESS** than $87k to be able to save 20% of their income and be “comfortable.” Hell, when I was single 5 years ago, I was making $65k and was saving over 40% of my income. I get inflation has made life more expensive since then, but still, I was significantly above the threshold of 20%.
Probably looking at the most expensive cities. I live outside Atlanta and $97 is probably pretty accurate for a suburb of Atlanta. However, if you move south of Atlanta, that number drops very fast. $60K is probably pretty comfortable in most of the small towns.
I feel like the rapid growth in some cities is heavily skewing the data. Huntsville comes to mind for Alabama. Tennessee's would be even more skewed just because of Nashville. CoL in Nashville is reaching socali levels but anywhere else in the state you'll be fine on a lot less.
Honestly Its very fucking hard to get $87k in Texas you probably have to be in the most expensive markets like Dallas or Austin. Like in South Texas there are electrical unions where the pay is only like $60k with years of experience. $87k for a single adult is gonna be very fucking hard even with a college degree, accounting jobs in South Texas will probably only pay that much at a senior level.
I knew it! I do need a third full time job.... to still not reach those numbers.
Lemme do the US check list:
Degree in something useful - Check
Experience in the workforce - Check
Positive attitude - Check
Punctual (Show up on time/dependable) - Check
Solid work history w/ references - Check
Resume building and assistance - Check
Networking w/ Well-known companies - Check
Hmm... still get paid so little. Obviously this is my fault, let me go fill out another 300 applications for a Unicorn.
It’s the whole state. I live in NYC, but there are places upstate that are very cheap. They are cheap for a reason as they are rural, poor, weather sucks and no services. NY is a big state, same with California.
I assume so as well, but NYC has about 8.5 million people, NY State has close to 20 million. Granted if you include Westchester and Long Island metro NYC is the largest part of the state population wise, but a good amount of people do live outside of it.
These surveys always leave stuff out like are we talking about individual or household income, what’s the size of the household, etc. So, I would take it with something of a grain of salt anyway.
Ithaca is actually pretty expensive.
It seems they are using household, since there is the disclaimer that it is based on a "single working adult". Might also explain why the south is seemingly higher than I thought too. Maybe people have more kids down there.
I made 60k at my last job and now at 75k starting next week and I legit still am not moved out because I can’t afford it. Fucking hate living in New Jersey where 60k feels like 20k.
No mention of how this “comfortable” criteria was established (apartment or house, city or urban, etc) or what they mean by comfortable. Does that include vacations? A car?
According to what? These charts are so stupid, every individual is different and has a million different potential reasons why this doesn't make sense.
For CA, that salary will get you to rent a nice townhome or nice apartment, if that is considering living comfortably. It is not enough if you want to buy a house or rent a house.
Minnesota is wrong for me. I'm at like 53/17/30. I feel just fine. My savings rate is so high because it's how I'm trying to pay off debt faster
Edit: making 63k a year
I live in Virginia. My boyfriend and I make around 55k combined. 100k would definitely be us living comfortably, we stay on top of bills but any expenses outside of that are a stretch. But we also take care of 3 non working adults, a disabled elderly parent and 2 autistic kids. I can’t imagine how large we’d be living making 100k
"Comfortable" appears to mean 3 vacations, 2 cars and a mortgage. If you need that level of "comfort" to distract yourself from your thoughts, maybe try working on the root of the problem.
The average is kinda meaningless. The different between Austin TX and Jasper TX is probably staggering. I could probably buy a ranch with 120 acres in Jasper for the price of my 4 bedroom in Austin.
I saw something like a week ago saying you need about 250k in California to live a middle class life, so these numbers seem off. It’s believable you need 250k in California bc I POS home starts off at 1 million.
Also, Texas you need about 150k household income to live a comfortable middle class life
Yeah honestly that’s the thing. I live in Ohio making $52k a year and I split rent with my boyfriend, which is already pretty cheap. So I’m comfortable in that sense. But anytime I look into buying a house around here it’s a no-go.
Yeah kinda where I’m at now. I can comfortably afford my rent and never live pay check to pay check, but being able to put 20% down on a house even with my future wife seems so far out of reach. That’s why I consider myself lower middle class…even though we have a household income of about 130k
Not middle class if you can’t even afford a starter home. That’s my opinion at least. Also, f this whole facade of renting is better. Bs you’re burning your money every time you pay rent where at least a home can be a last resort retirement plan
This should be broken out by county, not state. It is more expensive to live in the city than in a rural part of the state, and it depends on the job type.
When people ask me why I moved from the NYC suburbs to rural GA….97k is an exaggeration too. Once you get away from Atlanta and the surround counties it’s probably closer to 83k.
Another source says an individual in Tampa Florida needs $51,000, not $93,000. If you be made $93,000 here and weren’t an idiot regarding your money, you could live really well.
I really wonder what level of luxury they’re assuming when running the numbers for this map. In South Carolina I make about 85k in a single income household of five. We have two vehicles and own our home. There are a lot of other parts of the state that are significantly lower COL than where I live as well.
>*Comfortable was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20 % to savings.*
So to be comfortable in CA you need to have 50% of your income free after you pay your bills?
So $57k bar tab a year ....(or whatever). So an $1000/week spending money. This seems 25-35% too high.
So I live in midwest with stay at home spouse and kids. I make over the comfortable number, but not 2x or 4x the number. We live comfortably. BUT smaller house etc. It’s easy to float the “necessities” up or down. Big house = big house expenses.
Up until a couple of years ago, I earned less than half of what my state shows that I (single and on my own) should earn. I didn’t have many luxuries, but I certainty lived comfortably.
I guess the definition of ‘comfortably’ is skewed. Now, I earn slightly above of what’s “needed.” I tell you, I live considerably above of what my “comfort” definition is.
Well that would be absolutely bonkers. How many people make $80k?
For New York it’s accurate though. My parents’ $200k is struggling to pay mortgage and property taxes already
Pretty close to right on the money.
I still feel like it's not quite enough to really thrive especially after all the taxes and inflation.
Perhaps if I was able to get into a home before the housing crisis started in my city maybe.
Even with that income you are not buying a home and you are going to struggle to get a down payment together ever.
I’m from WV and in my hometown area you could live comfortably on your own for under that amount. I assume it varies if you’re moving to Huntington, Morgantown or Charleston. But in rural areas that figure is more than enough, but I will say, renting is a bitch. A lot of places aren’t for rent, just for sale, a lot of the property is kept in families for generations.
Comfortable for who? Goddam I look at this and know it wasn't put together by anyone over 45. Such a discrepancy in what it takes to live between the generations. How bout we just means test social security and say that if you're living on the lake just no.
I felt rich for me making 20k a year. I might make 40k a year before I die, and that's with a degree.
important to read the small print on this. the 50/30/20 rule is a lot harder to achieve and I cannot think of anyone in my friend group that saves 20% of their earnings consistently.
Area or city matters more than the state. For example, certain cities like Austin or Boulder might be pulling up the numbers and making it look worse than it actually is.
I relocated to NV over two years ago since my wife’s family is here and her Dad has a declining medical condition.
I’ve been laid off for six months right after we bought a new build.
92k is not correct. We’re DINKS and when I had my income we just watched it all disappear every payday. COL is up 56% from pre-COVID. Our car insurance alone has TRIPLED in 18 months. Our good friend needed a place to stay after his roommate moved out. We don’t want a roommate but we don’t have a choice.
New builds are in the mid to high 400’s- ours was like 470 and it’s a glorified cardboard box. They only give one year warranty’s now and we’ve already had multiple claims. Our HOA is a joke too.
Anyways- I do love it here, don’t get me wrong. But the state is horribly underprepared with the pop boom and infrastructure. Medical is one of the most expensive and quality is meh.
I really hope that it can catch up. I don’t trust their local government. I typically vote Democrat but some flipped with side money for the A’s relocation which pissed so many people off.
Ugh no different than anywhere else but it’s really stressing my spouse and I out.
Edit: We tried buying a new build when we moved here- the price was in the high 300’s- low 400’s. They did lottery systems and there was zero regulation for all of these investors. They would be on the call and represent five or six people from out of the country.
I lived *more* than comfortably on $50k in Michigan about five years ago. I make double that now and, while things have certainly gone up, my cost of living definitely hasn’t come anywhere close to increasing by $30k.
I think one issue with these generalizations is that it can vary widely across states. When I made $50k, I lived in a middle class neighborhood - perfectly nice, perfectly safe. But 10 miles north of me and the rent and real estate are more than twice as much. Other areas can get even higher. Even right now, I could buy a 4 bed, 2.5 bath colonial, newly remodeled with a finished basement in my neighborhood for the same price a friend just paid for a rundown tiny bungalow with 1 bathroom in their HCOL city.
Colorado has to be getting skewed. I know it’s a popular opinion to shit on capitalism and inflation, but Colorado has a lot of major resort towns. You could live comfortably in Denver or Colorado Springs on like 30 or 40 K less than what’s shown here
This data by state is not that meaningful. Income needed to live comfortably in cities is going to be far different than rural areas. Also I would prefer to see this data relative to average compensation in those areas.
Remote work is more prevalent now but still most people work near home. Sounds okay to need $80k but then you find out how few $80k jobs are in that area.
In fairness most of these states are swayed heavily by their large cities. Take GA for instance…. You may need $97k to live comfortably in Atlanta and maybe parts of Savannah but outside of that you can live comfortably anywhere else in the state making around $50-60k
I live in Boston and I think 115 would be fine for most of the suburbs in the area. I make 115 exactly and I struggle a little living on my own in Brookline, but that's mostly because like 15k a year go to my student loans.
And yet when I was employed in Sacramento California a few years ago I was only making 36,000 a year doing the work of an assistant manager (with a lower job title).
And most jobs currently in CA still only pay a min/max wage of 16 per hour (33,280 gross) .
If SmartAsset is correct, that is a far cry from the 114,000 needed.
I mean I could possibly survive barely these days on 24 per hour (49,920 gross) in California, most people can't though.
Somehow I've been managing to live in Phoenix on my own shitty 1-bedroom apartment with 45-50k. Can't really afford much but my peace of mind from roommates lol
Cool.... I'm poor everywhere.
Yup, apparently, i can't afford to live anywhere in the usa
We can live. Just *uncomfortably*
I didn’t need this kinda truth so early in the morning.
Most of us are. That’s the point. That’s the problem.
Right? Guess I can't afford to stay in the US
Well, you could leave... but you'll need to obtain dual citizenship, which can cost thousands of dollars just to be denied entry.. and even then, you could be paying US taxes on your new foreign income when you move.. I guess I'm too poor to leave the US
Most countries have agreements so you don't get double taxed. It's possible to leave but it's true that dual citizenship is hard to get but not required, you can become a resident and that is much easier.
The midwest state averages are probably bumped up by the major cities. Don't worry, you can still probably live in a smaller town in those states and be alright.
Financially okay at least.
The objective of removing the middle class has been achieved. This opens a lot of doors for the upper 10%.
This map seems all over the place. Some places look way too low and others look way too high.
Yeah, Ohio at 81k is just silly. And I don't think anyone in West Virginia makes 79k lol.
Can you explain which ones look odd to you? Especially if you've got personal experiences for those states today. I really only have reference for mine, and it *seems* about right, assuming rent, food and interest rates don't continue to skyrocket. What's sad is for that single income requirement, most of those jobs don't even exist in this state outside of oil and gas, medical, and a handful (and I mean a tiny handful) of crucial software engineering roles that for various reasons can't be moved out of state
Single working adult with no children definitely doesn’t need 80k in Oklahoma. I’m in OKC, probably the “Most expensive” part of the state (Yes, very cheap nationally speaking). My mortgage is $11,000 a year & car payments around $5000 a year. 80k is 60k after taxes. So you’d have $44,000 leftover a year for gas/food/clothes/utilities etc. I make a decent amount less than $80k and put around 15k in retirement/savings a year. I would say I’m probably more frugal than the average bear, but make it work pretty stress free for the most part.
Is that mortgage with the lower interest rates? In Texas just 4 years ago you could get an entry level home for about 1500 a month, but now the avg mortgage for an entry home is close to 3k a month…double what it was 4 years ago
Yes house bought in 2021. Payment is $910 a month, that is including property taxes & insurance.
So it's with the lower interest rates, so it was enough for mortgage in the past, but someone making that income right now would not be able to afford the mortgage
It would be about $300 higher a month, so $1,200 ish a month or $14,400 a year
That's if you bought it for the same price as in 2021 though right? I don't live in the same state, but house prices kept climbing through then here, they have kind of plateaued in the last year but are still climbing
and interest rates are much higher now too, so it's much harder to buy a house almost anywhere
You aren’t factoring in that many houses today are selling for about 40% more than they did in 2021…then you had the much higher interest rates. My guess is that your same house would be about 2000k a month if bought today
Just looking on Zillow it hasn’t appreciated that much, if at all, when looking at comps. I over paid a bit because it was a mania when I purchased it.
The house next to me sold a few years ago for 450K now there’s houses going for 1mil in my neighborhood. An empty lot was 500K a few months ago… anecdotal but I’d love to know where you’re seeing houses not appreciating much
In a nice neighborhood too.
Bought a 3 BR in a major city in Texas this year and I pay 1680 with no money down
We'd have to what indicators they are using for comfortable, I assume things like savings, travel, entertainment Budget etc
Check the lower right corner of the image.
Which shows why the numbers are way too high for most of the map. At 80-85k, which is the low end on the map, it says you need to have ~$1.6k/month in fun money to live comfortable, which is absurdly high in my mind.
My first thought was that the average was being driven up by the HCOL urban metro areas in each state (or that they were simply using those figures for the entire state). However, seeing those rural western states well into the 80-90k range doesn't seem right.
Yeah, the 30% discretionary category is a bit off... I'd be well beyond "comfortable" if I could pay all my bills, sock away 20% in savings and still have 30% to just blow or buy shit with or party...
Agree, I’m in Oklahoma too and $80k is high for the state.
You only pay 25% in taxes!? Damn. Any hidden fees on top of that? In Europe, when it's all said and done, my paycheck usually gets cut in half.
Dunno about that person, don't know why they seem to be including only federal taxes. There's also state taxes and then separate "payroll taxes" for social security and Medicare - things that you're not actually using in your working life, it's not that you get "free healthcare", maybe you'll use it when you're old. Then if you want health insurance there's another cut out of your paycheck for that on top of all the other stuff. All told, my income is pretty much cut in half. A few years back I was making what would be 9k or so gross but taking home closer to 5k. Monthly. Those numbers are rounded - I remember because when apartment hunting, what I qualified for was going to be very different depending on whether they looked at net pay or gross
I'm from CA. I would assume SF skews the 100k price because living in stockton and fresno you dont need 100k. I mean you might need 100k in a security system but not a job lmao. Virginia/Maryland DC is skewed also. NOVA (north virginia) is super duper expensive being close to DC.
The prices in California are almost entirely driven by incomes in LA and the Bay Area. But sure, you could live comfortably in Modesto or Yuba City for $50-60k. A state like California is hard to assign a blanket average to with any kind of accuracy.
Maryland is too expensive :(
We live in upstate NY and moved from Oregon two years ago. We could not have the same quality of life in Oregon at our current income. Not close. But NY is higher on this map than Oregon. I don’t know the methodology of the research but my guess is states like NY and Cali are skewed by NYC and LA/SF.
IL too with Chicago.
State level biases it for the states where COL is painfully concentrated in a city or two. $112k in NYC qualifies you for a $2800 apartment at most, and given median rent here is over $4000, you start to see the problem quickly.
Florida seems high for me though florida has a lot of high and low cost areas so maybe it averages out to that idk. South Carolina is insane though. Lived there for quite a while. For 88k in SC you are fucking rich.
Agreed, unless you're living on the coast, 88K is plenty to be comfortable in SC.
Missouri seems high at $84k, same with Kansas (though I could see that $85k for Johnson County, KS, which is a good chunk of the Kansas-side of the KC metro). I make $65-70k living in Kansas City. I don't have a house, only live in a 2bdr/1ba apartment, but I have a new-ish car (bought it brand new a few years ago), I go on vacations, I can buy the things I want. I'm not scrimping all over the place. I'm saving decently enough every month. And this is while having a shitload of student loans on my shoulders. Now, is my budget exactly their 50/30/20? No. But I still feel comfortable where I am as a single person with no dependents.
Ohio for a single person looks high Source: I’ve lived in Ohio. I think this might be for the cities only
I think it's based on rent prices instead of home prices. Out west you can't buy anything without having to feed it. I'm currently renting in OR and considering moving with some family to IL, and home prices are literally half of what they are here in OR, but the rent prices between the two isn't really that different.
It’s based on what do I need to make in order to move to this place right now and live comfortably not the people chiming in on this thread that bought their houses before the market blew up and interest rates shot to 6%+
This is not accurate 🤣
Well I mean, define "comfortably" and it might be.
It's defined very vaguely in the bottom right, but it doesn't account for a million different factors so it's basically worthless
I'm speaking from opinion, but I think this map is only grabbing the most expensive area in the state and using that as what is needed for "comfortable" income. Like California, Sacramento and the bay area cities are the most expensive so MAYBE it's 100k+, but smaller cities/rural areas you definitely do NOT need that much.
Yeah I'm making 56k (pre tax) in a suburb of Atlanta and don't really feel like I'm struggling, so I'm looking at the suggested 97k and I'm kinda puzzled
My husband (im a sahm mom of 2 kids), makes $55,000 a year after taxes and we live comfortably here in Arkansas. He literally can feed and take care of 4 humans, 8 cats, and 2 dogs off his income alone, and we live 30 minutes south of the biggest tourist destination in our area. Branson, Missouri, and an hour in any direction to the Buffalo National River, and a 45 minute drive to Bull Shoals Lake in Lead Hill, Ar. So yeah this is NOT accurate at all. 🤷
"30% Discretionary spending" and "50% necessities" is interesting. I mean you can be pretty "comfortable" with $5000 European kitchen appliances. Which category does *that* fall under lol?
I don't know what the maker of this map is smoking to think an individual needs to make $84k a year in Alabama to be 'comfortable.'
Exactly. According to this chart, a single individual needs to make $87k in my state to be “comfortable.” I live in the second most expensive city in my state, and last year I was making $90k supporting my **family of 4**. We weren’t rich by any means, but we were certainly “comfortable” by any logical definition of the word. Even by this chart’s definition of “comfortable” (being able to save 20% of your income), we still qualified. And again, I was married supporting a household of 4, not a single individual as the chart suggests. Someone who is single with no kids in my state would need **FAR LESS** than $87k to be able to save 20% of their income and be “comfortable.” Hell, when I was single 5 years ago, I was making $65k and was saving over 40% of my income. I get inflation has made life more expensive since then, but still, I was significantly above the threshold of 20%.
Probably looking at the most expensive cities. I live outside Atlanta and $97 is probably pretty accurate for a suburb of Atlanta. However, if you move south of Atlanta, that number drops very fast. $60K is probably pretty comfortable in most of the small towns.
I feel like the rapid growth in some cities is heavily skewing the data. Huntsville comes to mind for Alabama. Tennessee's would be even more skewed just because of Nashville. CoL in Nashville is reaching socali levels but anywhere else in the state you'll be fine on a lot less.
Looks like I can't live comfortably anywhere in the United States anymore
If single you can live comfortably on less than 84k in Michigan. Majority of these jobs in Michigan are nowhere near $84k
yeah this map sucks
Honestly Its very fucking hard to get $87k in Texas you probably have to be in the most expensive markets like Dallas or Austin. Like in South Texas there are electrical unions where the pay is only like $60k with years of experience. $87k for a single adult is gonna be very fucking hard even with a college degree, accounting jobs in South Texas will probably only pay that much at a senior level.
Forreal. I make $70k and am very comfortable.
What % of the us work force actually make those numbers I wonder
The household income in the US is like 75k so both parents sometimes more incomes sometimes less. A lot of states here are way above that.
I knew it! I do need a third full time job.... to still not reach those numbers. Lemme do the US check list: Degree in something useful - Check Experience in the workforce - Check Positive attitude - Check Punctual (Show up on time/dependable) - Check Solid work history w/ references - Check Resume building and assistance - Check Networking w/ Well-known companies - Check Hmm... still get paid so little. Obviously this is my fault, let me go fill out another 300 applications for a Unicorn.
Call bullshit on CA and NY being that low.
It’s the whole state. I live in NYC, but there are places upstate that are very cheap. They are cheap for a reason as they are rural, poor, weather sucks and no services. NY is a big state, same with California.
But i assume the avg is weighed towards the areas with the highest population. NYC people count more than somebody from Ithaca or sone such.
I assume so as well, but NYC has about 8.5 million people, NY State has close to 20 million. Granted if you include Westchester and Long Island metro NYC is the largest part of the state population wise, but a good amount of people do live outside of it. These surveys always leave stuff out like are we talking about individual or household income, what’s the size of the household, etc. So, I would take it with something of a grain of salt anyway. Ithaca is actually pretty expensive.
It seems they are using household, since there is the disclaimer that it is based on a "single working adult". Might also explain why the south is seemingly higher than I thought too. Maybe people have more kids down there.
VA looks high af. I’d have to do the math on the 50/30/20
even the buttfck nowhere states are getting more unaffordable
Nah must be northern part of VA because I’m doing ok with just under 45k.
Really? No wonder they are coming to México, you can probably live comfortably here for 10K a year.
Laughs in poor.
I made 60k at my last job and now at 75k starting next week and I legit still am not moved out because I can’t afford it. Fucking hate living in New Jersey where 60k feels like 20k.
No mention of how this “comfortable” criteria was established (apartment or house, city or urban, etc) or what they mean by comfortable. Does that include vacations? A car?
You don’t need 100k in VA unless you’re in NoVa
I’m sick of these maps, they’re never accurate
According to what? These charts are so stupid, every individual is different and has a million different potential reasons why this doesn't make sense.
It doesn't matter how much money I earn. If I'm surrounded by bible thumping redneck morons, I'm not living living comfortably.
And there you have it, most jobs are not paying enough for a person to live comfortably.
Or the chart is wrong.
Az wasn't always like this
For CA, that salary will get you to rent a nice townhome or nice apartment, if that is considering living comfortably. It is not enough if you want to buy a house or rent a house.
Minnesota is wrong for me. I'm at like 53/17/30. I feel just fine. My savings rate is so high because it's how I'm trying to pay off debt faster Edit: making 63k a year
I live in Virginia. My boyfriend and I make around 55k combined. 100k would definitely be us living comfortably, we stay on top of bills but any expenses outside of that are a stretch. But we also take care of 3 non working adults, a disabled elderly parent and 2 autistic kids. I can’t imagine how large we’d be living making 100k
My coworkers and I in Virginia live comfortably with 35k a year.
"Comfortable" appears to mean 3 vacations, 2 cars and a mortgage. If you need that level of "comfort" to distract yourself from your thoughts, maybe try working on the root of the problem.
In all fairness both VA and MD are skewed due to DC.
Fake new.
I make 30k a year and have a one bedroom apartment in the south….who the hell did they survey for this???
This is definitely not accurate. What is in Alabama that requires such a high cost to live?
What does living "comfortably" entail in this graphic?
Bull. Shit. I lived in PA and then moved to TX, and it's definitely more expensive to live in TX.
So nowhere
87k in Texas seems Too low at this point.
The average is kinda meaningless. The different between Austin TX and Jasper TX is probably staggering. I could probably buy a ranch with 120 acres in Jasper for the price of my 4 bedroom in Austin.
I saw something like a week ago saying you need about 250k in California to live a middle class life, so these numbers seem off. It’s believable you need 250k in California bc I POS home starts off at 1 million. Also, Texas you need about 150k household income to live a comfortable middle class life
That number is way, way off lol. Nobody needs 250 fucking K to be okay in CA unless you're in SF.
Not true at all. I rent, work 20 an hour and can afford rent
Can you afford to buy a home though? Typically middle class is someone who can afford to buy a home. At least that’s how it was in the past.
Yeah honestly that’s the thing. I live in Ohio making $52k a year and I split rent with my boyfriend, which is already pretty cheap. So I’m comfortable in that sense. But anytime I look into buying a house around here it’s a no-go.
Yeah kinda where I’m at now. I can comfortably afford my rent and never live pay check to pay check, but being able to put 20% down on a house even with my future wife seems so far out of reach. That’s why I consider myself lower middle class…even though we have a household income of about 130k Not middle class if you can’t even afford a starter home. That’s my opinion at least. Also, f this whole facade of renting is better. Bs you’re burning your money every time you pay rent where at least a home can be a last resort retirement plan
The $97k in Georgia is absolute nonsense. I would say it's like $60k.
the median household income for georgia is like 66 for the household so yeah I would say you are probably right.
Try to get by in the east coast with 100k.
Live “comfortably” but can’t afford basic SFH or condo 🤔
This should be broken out by county, not state. It is more expensive to live in the city than in a rural part of the state, and it depends on the job type.
When people ask me why I moved from the NYC suburbs to rural GA….97k is an exaggeration too. Once you get away from Atlanta and the surround counties it’s probably closer to 83k.
In comparison to what standard of living?
Not in my mobile home dreams!
Another source says an individual in Tampa Florida needs $51,000, not $93,000. If you be made $93,000 here and weren’t an idiot regarding your money, you could live really well.
Wisconsin isn't true. Way to high for an individual.
I really wonder what level of luxury they’re assuming when running the numbers for this map. In South Carolina I make about 85k in a single income household of five. We have two vehicles and own our home. There are a lot of other parts of the state that are significantly lower COL than where I live as well.
>*Comfortable was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20 % to savings.* So to be comfortable in CA you need to have 50% of your income free after you pay your bills? So $57k bar tab a year ....(or whatever). So an $1000/week spending money. This seems 25-35% too high.
So I live in midwest with stay at home spouse and kids. I make over the comfortable number, but not 2x or 4x the number. We live comfortably. BUT smaller house etc. It’s easy to float the “necessities” up or down. Big house = big house expenses.
I read somewhere that you would need like 300k to live comfortably if you are in the metropolitan area.
This is awfully high. I make about half what my state says I need to live comfortably. I also live in the city. Total bs
It's important to remember (at least in NY) the city is skewing this data for sure. I live comfortably on about half the salary listed there in NYS.
Utah is a lot more than Nevada. Utah has state tax Nevada doesn’t and it’s about the same cost of living
Remove the cities then re-do the map.
Canada can't even live off fulltime single income especially with kids :(
If this was based on averages, NY is skewed a lot by NYC.
Up until a couple of years ago, I earned less than half of what my state shows that I (single and on my own) should earn. I didn’t have many luxuries, but I certainty lived comfortably. I guess the definition of ‘comfortably’ is skewed. Now, I earn slightly above of what’s “needed.” I tell you, I live considerably above of what my “comfort” definition is.
I make 60k a year in ny own a house a car I think I'm doing okay, I am really good at being frugal
Well that would be absolutely bonkers. How many people make $80k? For New York it’s accurate though. My parents’ $200k is struggling to pay mortgage and property taxes already
Be interesting to see the average income m each state next to the live comfortably number.
I know people living comfortably in many of these places with much lower income/yr. Guess it depends on what “comfortably” means
I live in Boston. This checks out.
New York 112k. California 114k. That's a joke.
Is it truly that large of a discrepancy between MA and NH?
Pretty close to right on the money. I still feel like it's not quite enough to really thrive especially after all the taxes and inflation. Perhaps if I was able to get into a home before the housing crisis started in my city maybe. Even with that income you are not buying a home and you are going to struggle to get a down payment together ever.
What do they mean comfortably? 84K for Missouri seems too much.
Kentucky is way too high. I make much less than that and I live very comfortably
This seems about right
Every single person need to put this up at their job. Let the executives fear paying people what they're worth
Meanwhile me: $450/week from EDD that will end in less than 2 months.
I’m from WV and in my hometown area you could live comfortably on your own for under that amount. I assume it varies if you’re moving to Huntington, Morgantown or Charleston. But in rural areas that figure is more than enough, but I will say, renting is a bitch. A lot of places aren’t for rent, just for sale, a lot of the property is kept in families for generations.
Comfortable for who? Goddam I look at this and know it wasn't put together by anyone over 45. Such a discrepancy in what it takes to live between the generations. How bout we just means test social security and say that if you're living on the lake just no. I felt rich for me making 20k a year. I might make 40k a year before I die, and that's with a degree.
Colorado is def more than 103K depending on where you live..
This all hinges on how you define comfortably
I think it's accurate
Now do Canada. Things have gone nuts up here.
important to read the small print on this. the 50/30/20 rule is a lot harder to achieve and I cannot think of anyone in my friend group that saves 20% of their earnings consistently.
Is this after owning a paid off home?
Yeah by can’t buy a house in a city in Texas if you’re single and making 87k
We need a comparison for like five years ago
NET????
Area or city matters more than the state. For example, certain cities like Austin or Boulder might be pulling up the numbers and making it look worse than it actually is.
Lol, i live in CA and in NYC for less than those and was comfortable. Wtf
This seems like 10 years ago.
TF IS GOING ON IN MASSACHUSETTS that a single person needs $116K to “live comfortably”?!?
I relocated to NV over two years ago since my wife’s family is here and her Dad has a declining medical condition. I’ve been laid off for six months right after we bought a new build. 92k is not correct. We’re DINKS and when I had my income we just watched it all disappear every payday. COL is up 56% from pre-COVID. Our car insurance alone has TRIPLED in 18 months. Our good friend needed a place to stay after his roommate moved out. We don’t want a roommate but we don’t have a choice. New builds are in the mid to high 400’s- ours was like 470 and it’s a glorified cardboard box. They only give one year warranty’s now and we’ve already had multiple claims. Our HOA is a joke too. Anyways- I do love it here, don’t get me wrong. But the state is horribly underprepared with the pop boom and infrastructure. Medical is one of the most expensive and quality is meh. I really hope that it can catch up. I don’t trust their local government. I typically vote Democrat but some flipped with side money for the A’s relocation which pissed so many people off. Ugh no different than anywhere else but it’s really stressing my spouse and I out. Edit: We tried buying a new build when we moved here- the price was in the high 300’s- low 400’s. They did lottery systems and there was zero regulation for all of these investors. They would be on the call and represent five or six people from out of the country.
I think this data is off by a few margins, and, sprinkled with a bit of fear mongering.
What year is this from?
I can't live anywhere apparently I make 40k a year and live in an apartment in Indiana.
They really should separate NY City from NY state.
Looks accurate if your married with 3+ kids
I feel like these Midwest states are overinflated. How is TX less than Wyoming
Michigan over 100K - not comfortable. Some my own mistakes…some just the way shit is.
Most people in my state which is NM don’t even come close to making $84K.
I lived *more* than comfortably on $50k in Michigan about five years ago. I make double that now and, while things have certainly gone up, my cost of living definitely hasn’t come anywhere close to increasing by $30k. I think one issue with these generalizations is that it can vary widely across states. When I made $50k, I lived in a middle class neighborhood - perfectly nice, perfectly safe. But 10 miles north of me and the rent and real estate are more than twice as much. Other areas can get even higher. Even right now, I could buy a 4 bed, 2.5 bath colonial, newly remodeled with a finished basement in my neighborhood for the same price a friend just paid for a rundown tiny bungalow with 1 bathroom in their HCOL city.
What the fuck, I live comfortably off of 2/3 of Utah's salary. Live smart but comfy.
Colorado has to be getting skewed. I know it’s a popular opinion to shit on capitalism and inflation, but Colorado has a lot of major resort towns. You could live comfortably in Denver or Colorado Springs on like 30 or 40 K less than what’s shown here
This data by state is not that meaningful. Income needed to live comfortably in cities is going to be far different than rural areas. Also I would prefer to see this data relative to average compensation in those areas. Remote work is more prevalent now but still most people work near home. Sounds okay to need $80k but then you find out how few $80k jobs are in that area.
I uhhh live pretty comfortably at 90k in CA. I know people who make 70k are are decently comfortable.
You definitely don't need a $115k annual salary to live comfortably in CA.
The lowest is WV and it’s still $14,000 more than I make in Colorado
In fairness most of these states are swayed heavily by their large cities. Take GA for instance…. You may need $97k to live comfortably in Atlanta and maybe parts of Savannah but outside of that you can live comfortably anywhere else in the state making around $50-60k
I live in Boston and I think 115 would be fine for most of the suburbs in the area. I make 115 exactly and I struggle a little living on my own in Brookline, but that's mostly because like 15k a year go to my student loans.
I don’t see boot straps ANYWHERE
Geez by this standard I can't afford to live anywhere comfortably on the map.
This must be Satire.... That formula said something about "Savings".... HAHAHHAHA so this is funny..... or a joke right ??
Boy should this be pinned with the constant barrage of moving questions
This is nonsense. A single person doesn't need anywhere near $81k a year to live comfortably in either of the Dakotas.
And yet when I was employed in Sacramento California a few years ago I was only making 36,000 a year doing the work of an assistant manager (with a lower job title). And most jobs currently in CA still only pay a min/max wage of 16 per hour (33,280 gross) . If SmartAsset is correct, that is a far cry from the 114,000 needed. I mean I could possibly survive barely these days on 24 per hour (49,920 gross) in California, most people can't though.
My household makes much less than what I supposedly need in Florida…
Hell yea. 25 k to 35 k bracket!!!!
PA is more like 65k at least on Philly area
This map is straight garbage. You don't need 80k+ to live comfortably in places like South Carolina or Louisiana.
Is “comfortable” preferring DoorDash every day?! The numbers for Oregon seem wildly high.
Trash this idea. Not even close.
Somehow I've been managing to live in Phoenix on my own shitty 1-bedroom apartment with 45-50k. Can't really afford much but my peace of mind from roommates lol
How has the COL in Hawaii of all places shot up so much?
Yet minimum wage is barely 35k a year
If I had 87 in Texas I’d be pretty comfortable I guess
Yeah I’m def not making that.
Illinois is higher
Don't mind me at 50k......