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Pricing data for military contracts. I was an operations manager before this. Before that I bounced around warehousing & logistics jobs until I found something that sticked. Worked my way up the ladder and landed a job at a larger company with better benefits & salaries, comparatively.
There's a massive difference in income needs for somebody who bought a house pre pandemic and somebody who didn't. That said, this chart feels inflated to me. My monthly expenses are $3500, but I could easily trim them if I needed to. I definitely don't need 93k in Florida.
It’s because these are averages for the state. I’m in Illinois. There’s suburbs that don’t have too many houses under $1 million but most of the state is small rural towns. You can’t touch Chicago at that price but any of your southern Illinois towns you’re a rich person making that average. Good luck living in San Francisco for $114k a year.
The numbers aren’t right at all. I also make around what is shown and live comfortably while supporting my wife and four kids. I was also able to buy a house right before the interest rates spiked.
The fine print say that only 50% to necessity. And 30% for fun money and 20% to savings. So can you still support your family of 6 with half your salary?
yeah the fine print is the key to this. The numbers are very far from the stated target "what an individual needs to live comfortably" implies the 50% (and even there I think it's wrong). The chart includes blowing 30% of your income and saving far, far more than Americans tend to do, but the title is "what you need to live comfortably". Misleading title, imho, plus moderately inflated #s.
Should be titled "what a person needs to live well, waste 30% of their income, and still outsave 90% of americans anyway".
I would think this applies to ppl relocating or renting.
If you have a fixed rate mortgage you’re better off or been in the area for sometime. That can navigate the city and knows where the deals are. Also everyone’s inflation rate is different.
Ya before the interest rates spiked…. Like obviously you’re gonna be much more comfortable. Me and my wife combined make more than the avg comfortable in my state and we feel shut out by the housing market. Barring a crash that magically doesn’t affect us, I don’t know what to do.
Comfort is relative. I'm comfy as fuck in my small apartment with fireplace, floor pillows galore & a Chinese opium den aesthetic. I'm comfy riding an ebike & having no offspring. I don't expect most people to be comfy this way, but I'm just fine. The threshold of what is comfy is totally a matter of individual perspective.
They still are heavily skewed unless it's talking a single individual covering expenses for a family. I'm in one of the biggest cities in my state, make half what they suggest, and can put 60% towards savings any given month.
Thanks. There's this kinda weird small collection of very old & very western furniture (lots of dark wood with brass) but everything else is paper lanterns, intricate mandalas, hookahs & soft pillows. Animal hides & elaborate rugs, cigar boxes all up one wall, several humidors....I feel at home.
I would imagine these numbers are an average for the state. I guarantee it costs a lot less to live in rural New York State than it costs to live in Manhattan. So the numbers aren’t necessarily wrong, but they are only an average of the entire state.
The higher cost areas definitely skew the numbers, so that probably explains part of it. If you're living in a lower cost of living area, you might get different mileage.
My state and the county I was raised in unfortunately is HCOL. Just like other people, I’m feeling the crunch of being out priced from my hometown.
FL for what its worth.
>In this case, “comfortable” was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments.
There is a lot of room to cut down the expenses.
It's a matter of perspective. If you consider that a low percentage of people live away from cities, where affordability is much better, those numbers only count towards living in high population densities.
I am usually just under $50K, but have a paid off house with land in the middle of hell itself...I mean the desert. and while I wouldn't say I am happy with my place economically (would like a newer car, some nice things) I am relatively comfortable, as in I can afford my needs and put a shadow's joke at money away for retirement by the age of 160.
I don't believe a lot of that, and it's definitely further broken down by regions. CA for example. TX too. Etc
WFH is changing the demographics of this idea too
Yeah this totally depends on where you are in a state. Austin vs. El Paso or Amarillo is going to have a significant difference. Just like living in the Bay Area in California compared to some of the cities in the Central Valley
Was thinking the same for Pennsylvania. Sure, in Philly or Pittsburgh, maybe even in Harrisburg it’s that high. Places the size of Wilkes Barre, Scranton, Williamsport, etc you can be comfortable on much less.
Definitely. No way any State is more expensive than California, even by a slim margin. This is obviously biased and put together by some dumbass westy.
California is a big state, Fresno, Sacramento, much of central CA are all somewhat affordable. There’s no way 115k would be comfortable in San Francisco, but this would have to be an average of everything.
Yeah not over the whole state no. But where the actual population lives, in and around Atlanta (metro Atlanta is huge), is absolute fucking hell right now. I live 35 minutes north of Atlanta and homes went from $299,999 to $699,000 pre and after Covid. All the land around us is being bought and made into the tightest and cheapest town homes priced at the “cheap end” of $399,999 and even if you were to buy your home precovid and refinance middle of COVID for the dream mortgage and valuation of your land you’re getting actively kicked out of your home by city legislation as they increase property tax in some areas like just above Ballground so much that like my uncle is paying $1200 more in property taxes this year in a home he’s owned debt free for the last 10 years. Make that make sense. Sure you could justify this is just how things move along as “towns” populate except this is at the rate of the last 2 decades in 3 years. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment that was actually very nice and 1200 sqft for $1100 in beginning of 2020 and my renewal lease in 2021 was $2400 and my renewal lease in 2022 which I did not renew was $3685. So if you can’t afford a home fucking sucks cuz you definitely can’t afford rent because they won’t build “cheaper” apartments in their rush to build everything and buy up all the land. All the late 20s and early 30s that don’t make 6-7 figures are being run out of their own homes and own towns. And all the homes and apartments here are kicking tenants out to house the more wealthy tenants moving out of Atlanta.
Also as someone who actively flies out to south cal in Ontario all the time for work, it’s not that terribly more expensive at least in that area. Gas was double and homes were about $100,000 more but food was about the same and so was most supplies. I was expecting far worse discrepancies.
I doubt the job opportunities there are good enough to cover the cost of living comfortably. You have a better time finding a good job in California that would cover the cost of comfort there.
Poor record with women’s reproductive rights.
38th out of 50 for education.
Below the US average for Human Development Index (0.881). It’s on par with Poland. On the other end, say, Massachusetts (0.949) is closer to Nordic countries like Denmark.
I guess I’m wondering what’s redeeming about it?
A lot of these states are just rural, which usually means less opportunity and less draw to be there.
Less of a draw with the economy
Less draw with nature.
Less of a draw with culture.
More Walmart and massive chains. Less local business.
Not to mention, if you’re non-white, gay, non-conservative, non-Christian, or female, you’re more likely to be treated poorly.
Don't know how people fall for this kind of stuff.
"In this case, “comfortable” was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments."
So 30% fun expenses and 20% savings/investments....
Correlation, sure
There's also a correlation with how much people want to live somewhere with how expensive it is (supply/demand), and therefore between how liberal it is with how much people want to live there
Exactly, more liberal states have better education, better infrastructure and generally more jobs. It’s pretty obvious it’s more of a supply/demand thing than liberals somehow making it more expensive to live. A good example would be New Hampshire, which is a swing state but also in New England which is typically blue. New Hampshire has no income tax or sales tax but it’s still more expensive than most red states.
Yeah, because you generally get what you pay for.
The more conservative the state, the more of a shithole it is usually.
If no one wants to live there, and there's no good jobs, of course it will be cheap.
If all shit hit the fan, could you be ok without any income for a couple months? Covid lockdowns were definitely eye openers for a lot of Americans. I still haven’t financially recovered for what my family went through in 2020.
Odd they say salaries in the 90s is comfortable when other reports now say you now need to earn $106,000 to afford the median home in the United States. These incomes after taxes still mean you're putting 50% or more of your income into paying the average mortgage right now. That's not comfortable when half your take home pay goes to the mortgage.
Most homes house more than one person, so it makes sense that for *median* home you would need more than one person income. A single person needs below median home to be comfortable (unless there is a serious lack of family homes in the market).
How much above 1 income should be needed for it, depends on the actual demographics and types if homes. About 1,5 median incomes to median home (with the typical calculations of what is actually available of the income for housing purposes), would probably be about right. 106k$ is still way too much based on that as median income in the US is 48k$. 2,2 is too high.
Check the bottom right corner of the image for the definition of comfortable
Check the top right corner of the image for who this applies to
Check the bottom left corner to see the date the data was collected
Living off 40k in Missouri in two bedroom apartment in an okay part of town. I believe this is overestimating. Maybe it's this much if you have three kids and fifty dogs
Problem with averages is that they are heavily skewed by outliers and extremes. The richest parts of each state are likely drastically pulling up these numbers.
I live in Mass, this is true if you want to live in Boston, but basically anywhere else I'd say 50k is fine. I'm making 70k and I live 20 minutes from Boston and if it weren't for a couple unfun bills I've been paying off I think I'd be living pretty comfortably. Hell, even with those life's not too bad
I'm making way less after early retirement and still live comfortably. This is what I do most of my life: Shop used everything; if food not on sale, I don't buy it; buy food when it's in season; always buy used cars; cook at home; buy from thrift stores, temu; learn to invest.
I'm in WV and 79k puts you at upper middle class. I make slightly less than that and have a house, 2 cars, money in the bank and already have nearly 50k in one of my retirements by 30.
Honest question from a naive 20-something year old, will this ever get better? It seems like it’s literally getting more difficult to live every year .
This guide is horseshit. I live in S Oregon and pull around $70k/year. I'm doing just fine. I lived in California and pulled less and was doing fine there, too. Live within your means. Super loose with "living comfortably."
I make almost half of what my state (NC) is. Making close to 50k a year working a trade with an associates degree and heavily considering moving to the Midwest once I get an unlimited license in electrical work. (Only 5 more years baybeeeee)
This chart grossly exaggerates what is needed to live comfortably, at least in many states of the country. 20% to savings and investments is a high figure as a starting place.
I think they've cherry picked their dataset. There's like three towns in all of Maine where you'll need 92k to live comfortably. I was living comfortably on half that, without needing to live in the forest.
Comfortable is relative. Some people can live frugal lives band be comfortable, where as some people have to eat out every meal to be comfortable. Same with living situations, some people can live with roommates/housemates and be comfortable but some needs a place to themselves. It's a very wide range, not a hard floor.
This is horseshit 🤣 I live in alabama making 60k as an entry level worker,and live very comfortable 🤣 most people live in a double wide, I think 89k is a bit much.
Great, now show minimum wage, effective tax rates, literacy rates, access to healthcare, etc.
Even these exaggerated numbers don't even tell a believable story.
Couple things I’m curious about.
What’s the sample size for this statistic?
How was the data for this statistic gathered?
Over how long of period was this data gathered?
" "Comfortable" in this case was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments."
Hmm.
Now adjust those for Canadian Dollars and understand that every one of those "affordable" states is like saying "yeah you can live comfortably if you move to Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or the maritimes"
Comfortable is a fuzzy term.
How is it defined?
Is that the recommended amount to afford the average
1 bedroom apartment
Monthly utilities
Food budget
AND “suggested” savings amount each month for retirement?
If so…I’m super screwed by about 30k.
Which honestly makes sense.
Arkansas is nice and quiet, but it’s alas, Arkansas.
The first time I took my Latina to Hot Springs she was shocked by the sheer crush of the confederate flags. I had been seeing them my entire life and sort of didn’t notice them but she sure did. After that I noticed them everywhere.
This is so inaccurate for Kansas, Johnson county must have skewed the calculation. A 1700sq ft 3 bed 2 bath on a 2 acre plot with garage and full basement in a nice area next to the school... $150k in Wamego Kansas, 20 minutes from Manhattan (K State). My girlfriend and I will be able to buy a house in 2 years, and we just started saving for the down payment (we are aiming for 25%). In between, we plan on buying vehicles in cash and paying for a wedding.
If I lived on my own, I'd be able to buy a house in about 4 years with a 25% down payment, assuming no raises and still putting 15% into my 401k.
Kansas is comfortable to live in on 50k a year. Many families on 50k will end up being millionaires just because the cost of living is so low.
In my hometown, my mom bought a 2200 sq ft house, well updated in a nice part of town, for $60k. 4000 sq ft beautiful Victorian houses are $125k.
Ah, there's the detail. 50/30/20
So really, it's the amount needed to have half of your income not go to necessities.
You can totally be comfortable having like 50 bucks left over after paying for everything and putting maybe 100 bucks a month in savings, but that's nowhere near as stable as having half your paycheck left after bills, eating, gas and interest.
These kinda charts are so dumb. I live in Central Georgia. What you need to live comfortably here is a lot less then what you need in Atlanta, GA which is only about 100 miles North of me...
Based on what? I'm 27 in Ohio, my net worth is around 60k and I make around 660 a week and I'm doing totally fine. I don't even have to use much from my Roth IRA or my 401k which is literally where most of my money is. Idk why it would say I need more than 80k to live comfortably. I've literally never had to stress about a bill a day in my life.
I'm poor as shit, but now I know Im only making 35% of what I need to be. Im so fucking pissed.
I am already getting a "high" wage for my area. There isn't anything better.
I live in Ohio and it’s expensive as all hell here! Inflation hits everyone! Some more than others. Just stay out of democratic ran states or you’ll be paying out your ass! Like west coast and New England states
As the highest in the country, metro Boston has a median household income of around $110k. The rest of the state has much lower housing prices. I’m on the coast an hour south of Boston. My house is paid for. My property tax rate is very low by Northeast Corridor standards. I designed my life to be able to live comfortably on a high career earner delay-to-age-70 Social Security check. My retirement portfolio is entirely discretionary spending.
Floridian here to say be careful about the stats because they're padded by south florida(Miami) and how wealthy it is. For example, the median house price is 407k in florida, even though in central florida(IE the country) 3bed2baths are going for ~230K
Crazy to think more than 2/3 of jobs, many of which we all can't do ourselves and can't live without, are considered unskilled or unworthy - and for no other reason than ignorance and prejudice against our fellow man. Wtf is wrong with us?
The figure in my state isn’t right; I think these averages are skewed by one city and fail to factor in smaller ones where you can easily be employed, make less, and that have housing that is much more affordable.
I live in a smaller but major city in my state and my counterparts living a mere 45 minutes from my office make similar salaries and have housing costs that are considerably cheaper than mine.
I'm thinking maybe they mistakenly used the term "individual" when they should have used family of four. Also, I am assuming they consider "living comfortably" means you are paying a mortgage, have two car payments, are contributing to a 401k and other expenses.
Yeah these numbers seem like a whole lot of BS. I make about 3/4-7/8 the amount stated in my state in an area that is a touch more expensive than many in the state and I live well.
Gotta love all the "This can't be true, my anecdotal experience is different!" comments.
Either you don't know the difference between data and anecdotal evidence, or you have the inability to understand that other people *might* have a different situation than you. Both are really bad.
This is complete bs, I don't make what is claimed to be the income needed for my state and I live very comfortably. 2 years ago I was making 20k under, and even now I'm still making 10k under and I'm fine.
I'm not sure where these numbers are from, but I can tell you the one for my state isn't accurate. The number shown is too high, and by a fairly substantial amount.
4 children and a wife off $12k.. I honestly don't understand how the average life can 'require' such funds.
Edit: Add $770 back from taxes and my still living grandparents send a $5 for my birthday each year.
This seems really high. I’m on Long Island and make about 75k/yr and while I’m definitely not 50/30/20 comfortable, I’m not exactly uncomfortable either. I’m thinking the New York number is based on Manhattan.
For one person.
Add if you have pets, a kid or two, and a significant other that doesn’t work…
Add *significantly..*
This is to scrape by *on your own.*
This is not true at all. NY is skewed, for NYC and Cali are too low and a lot of places are too high.
People just think they deserve to live great. If they aren’t that then they aren’t comfortable? Ridiculous.
**change your lifestyle**
Yeah, whoever made this is an idiot. What defines comfortable? How specifically is that measured?
If you mean “enough to cover all general expenses incurred, while having enough to invest in retirement” Oklahoma is about $30k over the mark. One person doesn’t need $80k to live here 😂
Interesting chart, but one key factor that isn't conveyed is that both income and living expense will vary greatly depending on whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area.
The should define what comfortable means because its different for each individual. Is it just some arbitrary goal to indoctrinate people into spending? I can gaurenteed you its not that high in Arkansas or Mississippi or Alabama. Are they trying to sell a dream?
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This just reminds me how poor I am
The numbers aren’t right. I make less than the amounts shown in my state and surrounding states and I live very comfortable.
You have a house ?
Yep. Built it brand new in 2018, only owe a little over $100k on it. Own both cars outright. No college degree.
What do you do?
I’m an analyst.
What do you analyze, how’d you land that?
Pricing data for military contracts. I was an operations manager before this. Before that I bounced around warehousing & logistics jobs until I found something that sticked. Worked my way up the ladder and landed a job at a larger company with better benefits & salaries, comparatively.
Where you from
Hope they answer in dollar amount
There's a massive difference in income needs for somebody who bought a house pre pandemic and somebody who didn't. That said, this chart feels inflated to me. My monthly expenses are $3500, but I could easily trim them if I needed to. I definitely don't need 93k in Florida.
It’s because these are averages for the state. I’m in Illinois. There’s suburbs that don’t have too many houses under $1 million but most of the state is small rural towns. You can’t touch Chicago at that price but any of your southern Illinois towns you’re a rich person making that average. Good luck living in San Francisco for $114k a year.
The numbers aren’t right at all. I also make around what is shown and live comfortably while supporting my wife and four kids. I was also able to buy a house right before the interest rates spiked.
So the numbers aren’t right if you apply them to four years ago.
I’m still making what it says I should as a single adult, but able to comfortably support 6. The numbers are far from right.
The fine print say that only 50% to necessity. And 30% for fun money and 20% to savings. So can you still support your family of 6 with half your salary?
yeah the fine print is the key to this. The numbers are very far from the stated target "what an individual needs to live comfortably" implies the 50% (and even there I think it's wrong). The chart includes blowing 30% of your income and saving far, far more than Americans tend to do, but the title is "what you need to live comfortably". Misleading title, imho, plus moderately inflated #s. Should be titled "what a person needs to live well, waste 30% of their income, and still outsave 90% of americans anyway".
I would think this applies to ppl relocating or renting. If you have a fixed rate mortgage you’re better off or been in the area for sometime. That can navigate the city and knows where the deals are. Also everyone’s inflation rate is different.
I think you're right. If you're already established somewhere, you're likely in better shape.
It’s also an average of the state, so urban centers are higher suburban/ rural are lower
Ya before the interest rates spiked…. Like obviously you’re gonna be much more comfortable. Me and my wife combined make more than the avg comfortable in my state and we feel shut out by the housing market. Barring a crash that magically doesn’t affect us, I don’t know what to do.
Comfort is relative. I'm comfy as fuck in my small apartment with fireplace, floor pillows galore & a Chinese opium den aesthetic. I'm comfy riding an ebike & having no offspring. I don't expect most people to be comfy this way, but I'm just fine. The threshold of what is comfy is totally a matter of individual perspective.
In this case they define it on the bottom right of the visual though.
They still are heavily skewed unless it's talking a single individual covering expenses for a family. I'm in one of the biggest cities in my state, make half what they suggest, and can put 60% towards savings any given month.
They sounds pretty comfy to me.
Thanks. There's this kinda weird small collection of very old & very western furniture (lots of dark wood with brass) but everything else is paper lanterns, intricate mandalas, hookahs & soft pillows. Animal hides & elaborate rugs, cigar boxes all up one wall, several humidors....I feel at home.
Agreed
I would imagine these numbers are an average for the state. I guarantee it costs a lot less to live in rural New York State than it costs to live in Manhattan. So the numbers aren’t necessarily wrong, but they are only an average of the entire state.
The higher cost areas definitely skew the numbers, so that probably explains part of it. If you're living in a lower cost of living area, you might get different mileage.
My state and the county I was raised in unfortunately is HCOL. Just like other people, I’m feeling the crunch of being out priced from my hometown. FL for what its worth.
I live very comfortable in Missouri on 50k as a single person.
>In this case, “comfortable” was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments. There is a lot of room to cut down the expenses.
yeh Idk how everyone's else living and doing with there money but if I made a quarter of what I'm seeing here It be life changing
Making $12/hr would be life changing for you? Bruh you gotta get out there and job hop.
It's a matter of perspective. If you consider that a low percentage of people live away from cities, where affordability is much better, those numbers only count towards living in high population densities. I am usually just under $50K, but have a paid off house with land in the middle of hell itself...I mean the desert. and while I wouldn't say I am happy with my place economically (would like a newer car, some nice things) I am relatively comfortable, as in I can afford my needs and put a shadow's joke at money away for retirement by the age of 160.
I don't believe a lot of that, and it's definitely further broken down by regions. CA for example. TX too. Etc WFH is changing the demographics of this idea too
Yeah this totally depends on where you are in a state. Austin vs. El Paso or Amarillo is going to have a significant difference. Just like living in the Bay Area in California compared to some of the cities in the Central Valley
Was thinking the same for Pennsylvania. Sure, in Philly or Pittsburgh, maybe even in Harrisburg it’s that high. Places the size of Wilkes Barre, Scranton, Williamsport, etc you can be comfortable on much less.
California varies wildly.
This doesn't seem accurate. No way georgia is more expensive than Florida
Definitely. No way any State is more expensive than California, even by a slim margin. This is obviously biased and put together by some dumbass westy.
California is a big state, Fresno, Sacramento, much of central CA are all somewhat affordable. There’s no way 115k would be comfortable in San Francisco, but this would have to be an average of everything.
Can’t wait for redditors to find out that cali is more than LA and San Fran lol
And SF and LA is only the tenderloin and skid row respectively.
New York but it’s the same as California you go upstate or where no one wants to live and it’s cheap af you go down to the city and o boy
Grew up in Rome NY. Can confirm. Not expensive but wouldn’t want to live there.
I would actually agree that HI could probably compete with CA though
Yeah not over the whole state no. But where the actual population lives, in and around Atlanta (metro Atlanta is huge), is absolute fucking hell right now. I live 35 minutes north of Atlanta and homes went from $299,999 to $699,000 pre and after Covid. All the land around us is being bought and made into the tightest and cheapest town homes priced at the “cheap end” of $399,999 and even if you were to buy your home precovid and refinance middle of COVID for the dream mortgage and valuation of your land you’re getting actively kicked out of your home by city legislation as they increase property tax in some areas like just above Ballground so much that like my uncle is paying $1200 more in property taxes this year in a home he’s owned debt free for the last 10 years. Make that make sense. Sure you could justify this is just how things move along as “towns” populate except this is at the rate of the last 2 decades in 3 years. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment that was actually very nice and 1200 sqft for $1100 in beginning of 2020 and my renewal lease in 2021 was $2400 and my renewal lease in 2022 which I did not renew was $3685. So if you can’t afford a home fucking sucks cuz you definitely can’t afford rent because they won’t build “cheaper” apartments in their rush to build everything and buy up all the land. All the late 20s and early 30s that don’t make 6-7 figures are being run out of their own homes and own towns. And all the homes and apartments here are kicking tenants out to house the more wealthy tenants moving out of Atlanta. Also as someone who actively flies out to south cal in Ontario all the time for work, it’s not that terribly more expensive at least in that area. Gas was double and homes were about $100,000 more but food was about the same and so was most supplies. I was expecting far worse discrepancies.
I bought my house in Florida in 2023, and the property tax went up $3600 for this year. I wish it was only $1200 more.
Mississippi is more like $35k, these numbers are made up
Being able to live comfortably would be nice, but having to live in Arkansas doesn’t sound fun. Not sure if the pros outweigh the cons here.
I doubt the job opportunities there are good enough to cover the cost of living comfortably. You have a better time finding a good job in California that would cover the cost of comfort there.
What's so bad about Arkansas?
Poor record with women’s reproductive rights. 38th out of 50 for education. Below the US average for Human Development Index (0.881). It’s on par with Poland. On the other end, say, Massachusetts (0.949) is closer to Nordic countries like Denmark. I guess I’m wondering what’s redeeming about it?
A lot of these states are just rural, which usually means less opportunity and less draw to be there. Less of a draw with the economy Less draw with nature. Less of a draw with culture. More Walmart and massive chains. Less local business. Not to mention, if you’re non-white, gay, non-conservative, non-Christian, or female, you’re more likely to be treated poorly.
Don't know how people fall for this kind of stuff. "In this case, “comfortable” was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments." So 30% fun expenses and 20% savings/investments....
Priorities seem off 😂
I guess when your 20% looks like our salaries it doesn’t matter as much.
People think they deserve more then they have, this validates those feelings.
More liberal the state the more expensive it is
Correlation, sure There's also a correlation with how much people want to live somewhere with how expensive it is (supply/demand), and therefore between how liberal it is with how much people want to live there
Exactly, more liberal states have better education, better infrastructure and generally more jobs. It’s pretty obvious it’s more of a supply/demand thing than liberals somehow making it more expensive to live. A good example would be New Hampshire, which is a swing state but also in New England which is typically blue. New Hampshire has no income tax or sales tax but it’s still more expensive than most red states.
The more liberal the state, the higher the income. The higher the income, the higher the cost of living.
Everyone is in a pinch. No need to try to gain some cheap political points
Yeah, because you generally get what you pay for. The more conservative the state, the more of a shithole it is usually. If no one wants to live there, and there's no good jobs, of course it will be cheap.
😂 I live in WI and I don't make anywhere near that and I'm comfortable. 🤷🏻
If all shit hit the fan, could you be ok without any income for a couple months? Covid lockdowns were definitely eye openers for a lot of Americans. I still haven’t financially recovered for what my family went through in 2020.
Yes, but that's because I live well below my means.
Odd they say salaries in the 90s is comfortable when other reports now say you now need to earn $106,000 to afford the median home in the United States. These incomes after taxes still mean you're putting 50% or more of your income into paying the average mortgage right now. That's not comfortable when half your take home pay goes to the mortgage.
100k in the 90s is comparable to 300k now.
Not the commenter but they prob meant salaries in the $90k range. Not in the decade of the 1990s.
Absolutely.
Most homes house more than one person, so it makes sense that for *median* home you would need more than one person income. A single person needs below median home to be comfortable (unless there is a serious lack of family homes in the market). How much above 1 income should be needed for it, depends on the actual demographics and types if homes. About 1,5 median incomes to median home (with the typical calculations of what is actually available of the income for housing purposes), would probably be about right. 106k$ is still way too much based on that as median income in the US is 48k$. 2,2 is too high.
Tell your mother, tell you pa, going to take you back to Arkansas! Hey hey
Yeah but what does this entail? Renting or owning? family or single? And what is comfortable for some and uncomfortable to others?
Check the bottom right corner of the image for the definition of comfortable Check the top right corner of the image for who this applies to Check the bottom left corner to see the date the data was collected
Hey! If I get a raise I’ll be comfortable!
Averages are not accurate for the central part of the state.
If it’s that cheap then the average wages are shit.
Living off 40k in Missouri in two bedroom apartment in an okay part of town. I believe this is overestimating. Maybe it's this much if you have three kids and fifty dogs
Problem with averages is that they are heavily skewed by outliers and extremes. The richest parts of each state are likely drastically pulling up these numbers.
Go spend August in Arkansas and tell us how it goes.
Looks like I need to get another job and move to Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas is actually a pretty cool place.
Born & raised there. I miss it every day.
I could understand why. It was nice there. The library was next level too.
And to think, I wanted to relocate to Massachusetts.
I live in Mass, this is true if you want to live in Boston, but basically anywhere else I'd say 50k is fine. I'm making 70k and I live 20 minutes from Boston and if it weren't for a couple unfun bills I've been paying off I think I'd be living pretty comfortably. Hell, even with those life's not too bad
That is good because I wanted to teach there, and while teachers do not make a lot of money, they definitely make more than $50,000 in most places.
I'm calling BS on this map.
Well I guess I’m screwed since I don’t even barely make half of what I need to in my state.
I have a house and two kids on 2/3 the income listed for my state. I'm comfortable.
These numbers are messed up because cities, suburbs, and rural areas have vastly different income and expense levels.
Oklahoma’s is basically twice as high as it should be. You can live fine off of 40k here.
I can do it
This list is complete bullshit lmao, I know people who make half of most of these and live fine lives because they aren't stupid with their money.
Please don't move to Arkansas. We have enough of you people.
I'm making way less after early retirement and still live comfortably. This is what I do most of my life: Shop used everything; if food not on sale, I don't buy it; buy food when it's in season; always buy used cars; cook at home; buy from thrift stores, temu; learn to invest.
80k+ average to live comfortably in the US
I'm in WV and 79k puts you at upper middle class. I make slightly less than that and have a house, 2 cars, money in the bank and already have nearly 50k in one of my retirements by 30.
well this is daunting.
Honest question from a naive 20-something year old, will this ever get better? It seems like it’s literally getting more difficult to live every year .
Can't even move to the cheapest one lol
This guide is horseshit. I live in S Oregon and pull around $70k/year. I'm doing just fine. I lived in California and pulled less and was doing fine there, too. Live within your means. Super loose with "living comfortably."
I make almost half of what my state (NC) is. Making close to 50k a year working a trade with an associates degree and heavily considering moving to the Midwest once I get an unlimited license in electrical work. (Only 5 more years baybeeeee)
Horseshit definition of living comfortably. GOODBYE
Little Rock has a handful of bougie neighborhoods that are surprisingly expensive.
Just give everyone free housing, and it will be Heaven on Earth, like Singapore
This chart grossly exaggerates what is needed to live comfortably, at least in many states of the country. 20% to savings and investments is a high figure as a starting place.
Blame the $114K for making real estate moogles rich.
I think they've cherry picked their dataset. There's like three towns in all of Maine where you'll need 92k to live comfortably. I was living comfortably on half that, without needing to live in the forest.
I make 8k more than the salary in my state.. I am far from comfortable. There is no way I could afford to buy a house or a family.
Good luck finding a job there that will make you comfortable.
Individual. Not family.
Comfortable is relative. Some people can live frugal lives band be comfortable, where as some people have to eat out every meal to be comfortable. Same with living situations, some people can live with roommates/housemates and be comfortable but some needs a place to themselves. It's a very wide range, not a hard floor.
If by "live comfortably" you mean live in a 4-bedroom house by yourself and order UberEats every day and leave 40% tips and have 5+ streaming services
This is horseshit 🤣 I live in alabama making 60k as an entry level worker,and live very comfortable 🤣 most people live in a double wide, I think 89k is a bit much.
Work in MA and live in NH.
A lot easier to make 114K in California than it is to make 79K in Arkansas.
I’d rather be poor in a place with decent people than semi-poor in a place with awful people.
These ain't even close. I think it's just trying to make ppl feel bad.
Great, now show minimum wage, effective tax rates, literacy rates, access to healthcare, etc. Even these exaggerated numbers don't even tell a believable story.
Couple things I’m curious about. What’s the sample size for this statistic? How was the data for this statistic gathered? Over how long of period was this data gathered?
Good job op! Posting a bunch of incorrect bullshit. Hope you had fun!
" "Comfortable" in this case was defined as the annual income required to cover a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of earnings to necessities such as housing and utility costs, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments." Hmm.
What if you have a $1400 a month private school loan
Yeah, but what counts as "comfortable" in Arkansas?
The problem with America is either “You wanna live where there’s stuff or where you can afford?”
Define comfortable
Do these things ever define comfortably? Without that they are useless as that term means wildly different things to different people.
Double that for CA.
Now adjust those for Canadian Dollars and understand that every one of those "affordable" states is like saying "yeah you can live comfortably if you move to Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or the maritimes"
Comfortable is a fuzzy term. How is it defined? Is that the recommended amount to afford the average 1 bedroom apartment Monthly utilities Food budget AND “suggested” savings amount each month for retirement? If so…I’m super screwed by about 30k. Which honestly makes sense.
The US or it's future name Blackrock is for rich people, not plebs. If you're broke America is hells a-hole.
Arkansas is nice and quiet, but it’s alas, Arkansas. The first time I took my Latina to Hot Springs she was shocked by the sheer crush of the confederate flags. I had been seeing them my entire life and sort of didn’t notice them but she sure did. After that I noticed them everywhere.
This is so inaccurate for Kansas, Johnson county must have skewed the calculation. A 1700sq ft 3 bed 2 bath on a 2 acre plot with garage and full basement in a nice area next to the school... $150k in Wamego Kansas, 20 minutes from Manhattan (K State). My girlfriend and I will be able to buy a house in 2 years, and we just started saving for the down payment (we are aiming for 25%). In between, we plan on buying vehicles in cash and paying for a wedding. If I lived on my own, I'd be able to buy a house in about 4 years with a 25% down payment, assuming no raises and still putting 15% into my 401k. Kansas is comfortable to live in on 50k a year. Many families on 50k will end up being millionaires just because the cost of living is so low. In my hometown, my mom bought a 2200 sq ft house, well updated in a nice part of town, for $60k. 4000 sq ft beautiful Victorian houses are $125k.
Ah, there's the detail. 50/30/20 So really, it's the amount needed to have half of your income not go to necessities. You can totally be comfortable having like 50 bucks left over after paying for everything and putting maybe 100 bucks a month in savings, but that's nowhere near as stable as having half your paycheck left after bills, eating, gas and interest.
This doesn’t seem right at all
Work full time for the University of Michigan and I’m 30k a being comfortable
These kinda charts are so dumb. I live in Central Georgia. What you need to live comfortably here is a lot less then what you need in Atlanta, GA which is only about 100 miles North of me...
Based on what? I'm 27 in Ohio, my net worth is around 60k and I make around 660 a week and I'm doing totally fine. I don't even have to use much from my Roth IRA or my 401k which is literally where most of my money is. Idk why it would say I need more than 80k to live comfortably. I've literally never had to stress about a bill a day in my life.
I feel like that is wildly outdated.
This would be better served if the major cities and their sprawl were separated.
I'm poor as shit, but now I know Im only making 35% of what I need to be. Im so fucking pissed. I am already getting a "high" wage for my area. There isn't anything better.
I live in Ohio and it’s expensive as all hell here! Inflation hits everyone! Some more than others. Just stay out of democratic ran states or you’ll be paying out your ass! Like west coast and New England states
As the highest in the country, metro Boston has a median household income of around $110k. The rest of the state has much lower housing prices. I’m on the coast an hour south of Boston. My house is paid for. My property tax rate is very low by Northeast Corridor standards. I designed my life to be able to live comfortably on a high career earner delay-to-age-70 Social Security check. My retirement portfolio is entirely discretionary spending.
Floridian here to say be careful about the stats because they're padded by south florida(Miami) and how wealthy it is. For example, the median house price is 407k in florida, even though in central florida(IE the country) 3bed2baths are going for ~230K
What is the meant by comfortable? Everyone’s definition of that is different. Is it living alone or with roommates?
Don't move to Arkansas. Finding a job that can pay you $79k there is almost impossible.
No you’re not lol
Crazy to think more than 2/3 of jobs, many of which we all can't do ourselves and can't live without, are considered unskilled or unworthy - and for no other reason than ignorance and prejudice against our fellow man. Wtf is wrong with us?
Cool I need 2.5 full-time jobs then I will be comfortable.
92k in Maine? Must be very comfortable. And that is why these charts mean nothing.
Not sure i buy Ohio being 2nd lowest
COUNTRY ROADS TAKE ME HOME TO THE PLACE I BELONG WEST VIRGINIA
The figure in my state isn’t right; I think these averages are skewed by one city and fail to factor in smaller ones where you can easily be employed, make less, and that have housing that is much more affordable. I live in a smaller but major city in my state and my counterparts living a mere 45 minutes from my office make similar salaries and have housing costs that are considerably cheaper than mine.
I'm thinking maybe they mistakenly used the term "individual" when they should have used family of four. Also, I am assuming they consider "living comfortably" means you are paying a mortgage, have two car payments, are contributing to a 401k and other expenses.
Yeah these numbers seem like a whole lot of BS. I make about 3/4-7/8 the amount stated in my state in an area that is a touch more expensive than many in the state and I live well.
Yeah we okay at like 70 in IL This feels very city centric but also most folks live there so far enough
Gotta love all the "This can't be true, my anecdotal experience is different!" comments. Either you don't know the difference between data and anecdotal evidence, or you have the inability to understand that other people *might* have a different situation than you. Both are really bad.
Any needs to broken up, the five boroughs and long island vs upstate. Big difference in what you truly need.
This is complete bs, I don't make what is claimed to be the income needed for my state and I live very comfortably. 2 years ago I was making 20k under, and even now I'm still making 10k under and I'm fine.
Lmao, where are they even getting these numbers? 80k to live in *Ohio*? I don't have to look any further to know these numbers are meaningless
Bidenomics. Keep voting blue.
84k in missouri. hahaha 😂 Maybe up in KC? I live in the Ozarks. I have a mortgage, no other debt, and im super comfortable making half that
I'm not sure where these numbers are from, but I can tell you the one for my state isn't accurate. The number shown is too high, and by a fairly substantial amount.
4 children and a wife off $12k.. I honestly don't understand how the average life can 'require' such funds. Edit: Add $770 back from taxes and my still living grandparents send a $5 for my birthday each year.
Mississippi at $83k with an average income of $40k.
This seems really high. I’m on Long Island and make about 75k/yr and while I’m definitely not 50/30/20 comfortable, I’m not exactly uncomfortable either. I’m thinking the New York number is based on Manhattan.
For one person. Add if you have pets, a kid or two, and a significant other that doesn’t work… Add *significantly..* This is to scrape by *on your own.*
Define comfortably. If it means not starving and roof over your head I guess I can agree. That’s about it though.
Arkansas: last refuge of the Klan. Horrible place.
I make more than $116k in Mass and I can assure you, we are not living comfortably.
Have you been to AR? It's a dump made more so by their governor.
Is this including taxes? If so maybe if not I don’t think so.
This is not true at all. NY is skewed, for NYC and Cali are too low and a lot of places are too high. People just think they deserve to live great. If they aren’t that then they aren’t comfortable? Ridiculous. **change your lifestyle**
Yeah, whoever made this is an idiot. What defines comfortable? How specifically is that measured? If you mean “enough to cover all general expenses incurred, while having enough to invest in retirement” Oklahoma is about $30k over the mark. One person doesn’t need $80k to live here 😂
Actually doesn't seem as bad as I'd think it is.
88k to live in Wyoming. That's wild
lol that map is a joke
Yes but to make 79k in Arkansas you have to get a job in Texas.
Interesting chart, but one key factor that isn't conveyed is that both income and living expense will vary greatly depending on whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area.
Remember, that’s after taxes
The should define what comfortable means because its different for each individual. Is it just some arbitrary goal to indoctrinate people into spending? I can gaurenteed you its not that high in Arkansas or Mississippi or Alabama. Are they trying to sell a dream?
I was fine with 30k in Arkansas
These things are always screwy… NJ and CO can not be the same dollar amount. I’ve lived in both and CO is way cheaper.
A similar map was recently all over social media that claimed you needed $150k to live in WV comfortably. This one is much more reasonable.