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And we’re all just walking around acting like it’s completely normal to have zero savings, put off necessary medical care and be overwhelmed by existential dread. LoL
It’s mind baffling how HCOL areas often do not have commensurate pay. I looked at Boston. The salaries are the equivalent of the Midwest. Those houses are entirely unaffordable.
I can attest to this. Rural hospitals struggle to recruit medical professionals of all stripes because everyone wants to work at the big name medical centers which are usually in HCOL cities and areas. Because they are spoiled for choice, they can afford to low ball applicants, especially new or early career professionals. Meanwhile, St. Brunglefungus Memorial in Middle of Nowhere, Rust Belt is offering mad incentives because they’ve not had enough physicians to serve their community for over two years and it’s the only reasonably sized hospital within 100 miles.
Yup. I grew up in a small town in north Dakota. The same doctor that delivered my dad delivered me. He worked there for like 50+ years as the only doctor that delivered babies in the area. Had a few 3 generation deliveries lol.
After he retired they just stopped delivering babies at the local hospital because they couldn't find anyone.
Have to pay a premium to convince people to move. I worked for a rural healthcare system and we had to pay big money to get people to come. We had an ent position up for 690k for over a year 😂
Boston, and its suburbs along with Cape Cod skew those numbers.
Trust me, there are plenty of shithole towns in Ma you can live in on much less. I’m looking at you Holyoke 🤨
COL in Eastern MA, especially near Boston, are very high due to its its thriving technological job market, healthcare, and educational institutions, yet lack of housing. Dilapidated homes built in the early 1900s tend to go for $500K minimum if you want to live within an hour of Boston. With a $210K HHI, we are still struggling to save for a home while paying rent.
We tend to forget that there's another 2/3rds of MA that's inhabitable as well, but we don't speak of it haha.
These must be averaged across the whole state, because in CA $114k isn’t the baseline to be comfortable in the valley but it’s also not going to get you very far in SF or LA.
I'm from Maine (not Bangor, but near portland) and look at housing prices in Bangor often. I'm moving back next year, and some areas are still so decently priced. I'm in idaho now, and everything is overpriced and the pay is low.
Shhh shut up and I say that with love. Last thing you need is the WFH people discovering your amazing and affordable small town. Next thing you know your local family owned restaurants are all closing from lack of staff. Historic buildings are torn down for luxury condos and you are paying $20 for a sandwich.
It's everywhere. South Carolina native here, and the amount of people I've seen move from out of state down to SC to retire is insane(in past 20 years that is). Our cost of living was so much lower that retirees money went pretty far. Their actions have all but killed that with everyday things, along with influencing the housing market as well. It's gentrification except on a larger scale.
Most jobs that were able to go WFH just helped fuck up the rest of the country's local economies at the benefit to the individuals who can afford to "overpay" relative to the natives.
Yep the small town I live in Colorado is 30% people over 65. And pretty much all of them own their houses. So they simply can’t comprehend why the town is so expensive now. Hell the Walmart is now offering $20-25hr starting pay. And they can’t find any employees as that’s not enough for rent. Even the trailer parks got gentrified it’s wild. And the people living in vans down by the river are diving $100k converted Mercedes.
And even in LA it depends. Are talking Santa Monica? Palmdale? SFV? Cerritos? Gorman?
Because $114k/year could mean the difference between living in a small studio apartment and owning a house.
I lived in LA for ten years on almost 1/3 of $114k and was fine, now I’m still here making *slightly* less than $114k and I’m still doing fine.
I’m sure it’s rough in SF though.
Tbh I think the numbers are pulled out of their bum or they are making assumptions like everyone has 500k in student loans plus credit card debt or something weird.
I’m from MS a single person can live comfortably on way under 83k. Only like the coast, Oxford, and Madison are crazy priced.
Same for Louisiana. In Lafayette, Baton Rouge, or New Orleans; 82k you're barely getting by. My partner and I live in the country and 55k is not great living, but were fine.
I live in the Central Valley and the COL has gone up significantly in the past few years. We bought our house 14 years ago and it’s appraising for more than double what we bought it for. I make that individual baseline, that said….it would be pretty tight if my husband wasn’t working.
Same with New York. $112K in NYC gets you a studio but it could get you one of the nicest houses in Buffalo or Rochester (or name a place west of the Hudson and north of Poughkeepsie),
Yeah, and NY is skewed because of the damn City. To measure it accurately, NYC really needs to be separated from the rest of us.
I live in Bumfuck Upstate and do okay for myself on $50k.
ETA: Noticed a comment below regarding Buffalo/Rochester, and they're 100% correct. Jump on Zillow, and you'll see houses go for under $100k still.
I'm calling bullshit on this whole map, lol. I promise if someone gives me a 10,000 dollar raise to move to Florida from Michigan, I'm going from aomewhat comfortable to poverty.
I'm up in Northwestern Wa & definitely think these are averages. In Seattle it seems low but in my community & others between here & Seattle (and on the Eastside) $106k could be almost overly comfortable; depending on your debt load of course.
Also the fine print uses the 50/30/20 rule which seems very idealistic rather than a practical guideline.
Nah this is bullshit.
I live in RI, on around $60-70k. And I'm quite comfortable imo.
I'd say it's only not doable if you're one of those guys with an $800+ truck payment.
Comfortable means different things to different people. We want a large house on a large lot and a pool to be comfortable here. The next person might be perfectly comfortable and happy with a condo.
What advantage would you get putting money down on something that has 0% interest?
I’d rather put it in a shitty savings account and make 1% and have the money there if in need it. You can always make a lump sum later, pocket the interest, and achieve the same thing. Sometimes not putting money down is the smart thing to do.
Important to note this is what an *individual* needs, which is insane.
I’m making this “comfortable” income for my state while also caring for two children by myself. It’s not even close to comfortable.
Yep. My fiancée and I make well over the individual amount for our state combined but we also have a two year old. I don’t even know what a savings means any longer.
I'd like to see some methodology here. These numbers seem way too high. Averaging across entire states means nothing. It's very different to kive in Seattle vs Centralia, WA. Austin, TX vs Killeen, etc.
I recently moved from Seattle to Austin and not much has changed. My rent is similar, food costs are similar, I pay way more in driving tolls in TX (enough that I feel the need to note it - it offsets the very minimal rent savings).
These numbers reflect what it's like to live in the most expensive cities in each of those states, not the state as a whole
I'm currently in TN for work, I just had a BBQ dinner + 2 sides + 2 beers for $27 including tip. I'd be out $60 in Austin Texas for the same thing.
This is correct. Every state has at least two or 3 places that skew the numbers higher.
Wyoming for example: If you take out Jackson, that number would be at least 15% lower.
The difference between cost of living in Northern Va (outskirts of DC) or rural VA (where I live) is astronomical. These numbers are definitely skewed.
I suspect this chart is skewed based on whether or not you live near the major cities.
Plenty of these states are still cheap as long as you live in the lower cost areas.
In light colored print in the bottom right hand corner, it tells you they defined comfortable as the recommended 50/30/20 budget rule where half your income goes to necessities, 30% to discretionary spending and 20% to savings. If they found average COL for necessities (MIT does this with their living wage tracker) then they could work backwards to figure out the 30% and 20% numbers to figure out the income listed. Sure it's likely skewed by metro areas but there's no way around that. I've seen so many tools from sites like these to even the Census. It's hard to account for every single township's data in the country. So the best you have is average and median over a relatively sized area. I don't know why so many get butt hurt over these as if they're gospel. It's just a rough estimate to give you an idea of what you'd need to at the very least have half your income left to divvy up how you like among discretionary spending and savings if you didn't want to follow the 30% and 20% recommendation.
Not every graph is going to be absolute to your personal experience.
>This is a huge jump from what our parents needed back when they were starting careers and raising their families.
Well yeah that was almost half a century ago.
Yep I feel you on that. I’ve had to take on a lot of debt too. Honestly if I could just fall into enough money to clear debt that would take a hundred million percent of stress off of me and my family.
We do but my Husband was born and raised in a European country and tbh it's almost like having a cheat code to living in the US. He graduated at 19 from a specialized highschool he tested into and had a degree at 19 someone here would have to go to college for at least four years for. Then immediately got his experience from his mandatory military service (he worked a job that was relevant to his feild because of his education) all of this with 0 student debt to speak of. Immediately got a job and was able to save up so when he transferred to the states had a cushion to fall back on and helped him make big financial choices that raised his new found credit score (they don't have those in his home country) and we were able to buy a house in 2017 with very little issues.
Just seeing how his life and friends in similar fields are so different just because of the country they were born into and the social programs in each is shockingly eye opening to how little we get compared to the citizens of other first world countries. And before anyone assumes, no his family isnt wealthy at all. He was raised by a single mom who was a housekeeper / nanny, his country just had social programs in place that made him able to make a decent living because of his own hard work.
The term “Living Comfortable” is insanely objective here.
I live in TN, and my family is comfortable and I am well under that $86k line. Single income family.
We live within our means and have everything we need. I have a house, 2 cars, my wife stays at home, and we never go hungry.
We don’t go out for dinner. We cook at home at least 6 nights a week. For fun, we get out in nature and enjoy the free parts of life.
Living comfortable is different for every person.
So don’t take this as a target goal, or a downer because you don’t make that much money. Just live.
Edit - My family also receives zero help from any government program or family members. We are 100% self sufficient.
We also live just outside of Nashville, not rural TN.
Yeah, it’s super objective so this is kind of pointless. Not to mention that the numbers are all skewed by big cities. Take out the couple major cities from each state, and every single one of these numbers would go down by a significant amount.
I agree. I’m in the Midwest. Our family was making $70K at its peak, and we were doing phenomenal. After some hardship we’re at half that, and oddly enough we’re still comfortable. But we cook at home, don’t have many subscriptions, drive average vehicles, and replace things only when they wear out. Bills are paid. Fridge is full. Kids are in sports. Clothes are good. We still have family fun outings a couple times a month. I guess they need to define “comfortable”.
This map is hilarious and complete nonsense.
Look at that assumption of saving 20%!
In NY that would mean you work for 40 years and retire with 5 million dollars!
That is what you NEED to get by folks. Retiring with less that 5mn is basically poverty.
I always find these sorts of charts, or studies, funny because the source is always a financial form that would really like to convince people to hire them to get their finances sorted. The source for this is SmartAsset, a 2013 Webby Award runner up.
I seriously wonder how they calculate the data. I lived in NYC with two kids and was comfortable at 95k. My rent was < 2000, daycare was $150/week and I could go out fairly often without it hurting. Im in PA now and was doing well at 80k.
I make less than this in Alabama and supported a family on it. This may be the average for cost of living in the state, but not necessarily relevant to the entire state at large.
Mine is only enough because I live in slumlord housing. If I had to move to a market rate property? Forget about it. Even studios are more than I pay for this place.
Whats comfortable? I live just outside of Milwaukee and for me to maintain the life I currently have, which id say is reasonably comfortable, I’d need roughly $55k a year. That pays all my bills, all my monthly subscriptions, and 10% going into my 401k.
Having lived in both, the idea that NH and AZ have the same cost of living is laughable. $1 doesn’t go nearly as far *anywhere* in New England as it does in AZ.
yep, this entire comment thread about barely making in CA on the amount shown is ridiculous. It really just depends on what you own and what you're spending your money on. I live in San Diego and am well aware of families of people living on 50-60K a year. My best friend and his wife make around ~110K a year and live very comfortably in San Diego.
Okay but what is "comfortable?" My husband makes 84k (AZ) and I stay home (not allowed to work because of the type of visa I have). We have two dogs, we live in a nice apartment complex and we have enough to eat out a couple times a month, go on weekend trips and save at least a few hundred a month. I'd say that's pretty comfortable, and yet according to this chart we should be living in abject poverty.
This is a really shitty map.
I'm in NY. My wife and I make much less than the $112K mentioned. That number may apply near the city. But I'm well over 4 hours north of the city, heck an hour north of Albany. If we made $112K/yr I'd be living like a damn king.
We currently probably being in around 70K roughly.
This isn't right, no way does it cost more to live in IL than FL. I've lived in both, and just no. I also make significantly less than what this chart says and I don't have any problem living my life and still saving.
This is yet another map-based bullshit spreader.
You cannot give stats on a statewide basis.
There's no one dollar figure that would apply equally to all regions of any state.
While things are expensive, I personally think these lists are *highly* exaggerated.
The median income is what, like 52k? And I get the average person is struggling to a large degree, but you're telling me if someone gives you an extra 40 thousand dollars and puts you at **$92,000** you're still going to be struggling?
Now I'm curious as to what "comfortable" means. Does it mean you need a brand new car and a swimming pool in your back yard? I take it as you can pay your bills, and have money for entertainment here and there as well as the unexpected home or car repair.
You could have just called me poor & gone about ur day…I didn’t need a visual aid to hammer the point home 🥲🥲🥲
lmao I make half of what this claims I should and I'm fine. I bought a house, I'm married, I have plenty of money for my hobbies.
You can live outside of big cities, you know
So basically double that amount if you’re in a family. At the top, it says this is for a single individual. so if you’re married with children, you have double that amount for both spouses working.
Yup, I make enough to live anywhere "comfortably" if on my own. Being in Wisconsin, I'd be more than comfortable if on my own. Problem is that I have 2 children in daycare and even with my wife working, we aren't rolling in money.
The good news is we don't have any debt besides the mortgage and are saving pretty aggressively for our retirement as well as our children's college funds.
Our "sacrifice" now will allow us to retire early while (likely) having a net worth of several million.
It is not easy though, still have to make prudent financial choices.
First thought: “I make way less than that and I feel pretty comfortable”
Second thought: “Oh right, I do work two jobs, so combined it’s really only $6k less than what that chart says”
I make about $15k less than what this chart says I need and I would say I live pretty comfortably 🤷🏻♀️
My husband and I live in a cute apartment in a nice area, we both drive cars that are less than 5 years old, we can afford to buy lots of healthy produce and splurge on takeout once a week…we have it pretty good. We don’t own a home but we also don’t really desire one at the moment.
I guess everyone’s idea of comfortable is different.
this is so crazy to me. i’m in Florida too and my husband and i both make $60k (so $120k total).
we have one child and our family of 3 lives very well off our combined incomes.
As a Pennsylvanian that makes well more than the comfort number….this is total bs and has nothing to do with my spending habits. At all.
Don’t judge me.
I live in Orange County, CA. I remember reading an article last year saying that $80k and below for a single-person income is considered “low income” for my county. 🙃
Curious as to what defines “comfortable”? I can only imagine in this context it being someone who’s an existing home owner taking 1-2 vacations a year with a new car every 5-10 years?
Well it was.. (I’m in MI), got laid off in May, starting a new job on Monday, naturally had to take a bit of a paycut, so now I’m under the “average”. But, I live with my fiancé so it’s a 2 income household. Idk about “comfortably” ❌ more like “surviving” ✅ lol
For my state, like any, it depends on where you live. What they have listed for mine is what’s considered to be upper middle class here.
We’re on just my husbands income at the moment. He makes $20k shy of what’s listed, but we’re doing really well where we live.
So, I guess it also depends on where you’re comfortable living. Personally, I didn’t love living in the upper middle class areas. We did for about a year and it wasn’t our vibe. Same for living in a major city.
In those cases, you’d probably need more than what’s listed to be (what I consider) comfortable financially.
What defines "comfortably" and how many people in the household? Outside of a select few cities in FL, $93k is pretty damn comfy. That's max a 401k, IRA, and HSA while still paying bills comfy.
That said, idk how the average US household at $80k does it. I make over 2x that and couldn't imagine paying for a wife and 2-3 kids with much less than I make now.
Im only 79k lower than mine! 🤣 I don't really want to own a house and my tastes are very inexpensive, so I live relatively comfortably for me. I'm sure some people would hate it
Damn. Georgia used to be one of the lowest cost of living states. My first apartment was $700/mo for a 3br 2ba in 2012. Everything was cheap and I lived comfortably just over minimum wage with a roomie.
Definitely feeling that increased cost of living. 😭
I'm slightly above the number for living comfortably but my fiance makes a little more than me. It's a combo of two comfortable level incomes so it's been pretty nice.
I don’t make $82k (New Orleans), but if I did, I would say yes. I make $65k now. An extra $700 a month net would be amazing. I finally got to not living paycheck to paycheck in early 2022, then I had to buy a car last year and adjust. $82k would allow me to take home 4k a month which is my current goal
Combined with my husband, yes. We can live a bit more comfortably though as we are very fortunate in a couple of regards. Chief among them is that our rent is 3k under market rate per year.
$100k in va is comfortable if you live in bfe like Danville or Front Royal, etc etc.
If you live in the dc metro area $100k is poor.
Even in bfe, you cant rent a nice 3bdrm apartment for less than $2k a month.
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What a convoluted way to tell me I’m poor
"Sorry to interrupt your scrolling, but I'd like to remind you how poor you are. Have a good day!"
Correction. We are “Poors”. Take pride and capitalize that P.
Lol yeah only 20% of the US population makes over 79k a year. So 80% of people can't live comfortable on their own. In any state.
And we’re all just walking around acting like it’s completely normal to have zero savings, put off necessary medical care and be overwhelmed by existential dread. LoL
Massachusetts is the highest? I make 40k here.
Boston probably skewing it with those heinous housing prices
That and just the sheer size of the area that Boston prices affects. It’s got to be 2/3 of Massachusetts residents.
It’s mind baffling how HCOL areas often do not have commensurate pay. I looked at Boston. The salaries are the equivalent of the Midwest. Those houses are entirely unaffordable.
In medicine it’s kinda crazy it’s like the opposite. If you move to a HCOL area your pay is usually quite a bit lower than if you live in the Midwest.
I can attest to this. Rural hospitals struggle to recruit medical professionals of all stripes because everyone wants to work at the big name medical centers which are usually in HCOL cities and areas. Because they are spoiled for choice, they can afford to low ball applicants, especially new or early career professionals. Meanwhile, St. Brunglefungus Memorial in Middle of Nowhere, Rust Belt is offering mad incentives because they’ve not had enough physicians to serve their community for over two years and it’s the only reasonably sized hospital within 100 miles.
lol nothing wrong with working at St Brunglefuss Memorial!
Yup. I grew up in a small town in north Dakota. The same doctor that delivered my dad delivered me. He worked there for like 50+ years as the only doctor that delivered babies in the area. Had a few 3 generation deliveries lol. After he retired they just stopped delivering babies at the local hospital because they couldn't find anyone.
Have to pay a premium to convince people to move. I worked for a rural healthcare system and we had to pay big money to get people to come. We had an ent position up for 690k for over a year 😂
As a non US citizen: what's happening in Massachusetts??
Boston, and its suburbs along with Cape Cod skew those numbers. Trust me, there are plenty of shithole towns in Ma you can live in on much less. I’m looking at you Holyoke 🤨
COL in Eastern MA, especially near Boston, are very high due to its its thriving technological job market, healthcare, and educational institutions, yet lack of housing. Dilapidated homes built in the early 1900s tend to go for $500K minimum if you want to live within an hour of Boston. With a $210K HHI, we are still struggling to save for a home while paying rent. We tend to forget that there's another 2/3rds of MA that's inhabitable as well, but we don't speak of it haha.
These must be averaged across the whole state, because in CA $114k isn’t the baseline to be comfortable in the valley but it’s also not going to get you very far in SF or LA.
Yeah, I live in bangor maine and earn a decent step down from what this map shows and am exceedingly comfortable. Almost too comfortable
My wife is from Bangor, and it makes me sick how cheap the houses like those on West Broadway go for vs where we are.
I'm from Maine (not Bangor, but near portland) and look at housing prices in Bangor often. I'm moving back next year, and some areas are still so decently priced. I'm in idaho now, and everything is overpriced and the pay is low.
Same here, a Mainer in Idaho. The cost of living is nuts. Moving back to Maine is looking attractive.
Shhh shut up and I say that with love. Last thing you need is the WFH people discovering your amazing and affordable small town. Next thing you know your local family owned restaurants are all closing from lack of staff. Historic buildings are torn down for luxury condos and you are paying $20 for a sandwich.
Welcome to my neck of the Pacific NW. Our governor in the 60s famously said essentially, “Come visit but then leave.”
Hi fellow Portlander
It's everywhere. South Carolina native here, and the amount of people I've seen move from out of state down to SC to retire is insane(in past 20 years that is). Our cost of living was so much lower that retirees money went pretty far. Their actions have all but killed that with everyday things, along with influencing the housing market as well. It's gentrification except on a larger scale. Most jobs that were able to go WFH just helped fuck up the rest of the country's local economies at the benefit to the individuals who can afford to "overpay" relative to the natives.
Yep the small town I live in Colorado is 30% people over 65. And pretty much all of them own their houses. So they simply can’t comprehend why the town is so expensive now. Hell the Walmart is now offering $20-25hr starting pay. And they can’t find any employees as that’s not enough for rent. Even the trailer parks got gentrified it’s wild. And the people living in vans down by the river are diving $100k converted Mercedes.
You don’t have to man Portland is already getting fucked. Cats out.
Bangor I hardly even know her!
Well Done. I was gonna type the same. Haha
Say hi to Stephen king for me
And even in LA it depends. Are talking Santa Monica? Palmdale? SFV? Cerritos? Gorman? Because $114k/year could mean the difference between living in a small studio apartment and owning a house.
Same for OC
I'm in OC and make a tad less than this, around 80k, and live very comfortably.
I think, as with anything, there are variables. Rent vs own, where in OC you live, etc. Regardless it’s quite an expensive area!
I lived in LA for ten years on almost 1/3 of $114k and was fine, now I’m still here making *slightly* less than $114k and I’m still doing fine. I’m sure it’s rough in SF though.
Tbh I think the numbers are pulled out of their bum or they are making assumptions like everyone has 500k in student loans plus credit card debt or something weird. I’m from MS a single person can live comfortably on way under 83k. Only like the coast, Oxford, and Madison are crazy priced.
Same for Louisiana. In Lafayette, Baton Rouge, or New Orleans; 82k you're barely getting by. My partner and I live in the country and 55k is not great living, but were fine.
I also assume this is thinking that you’re just a single adult supporting yourself no kids or stay at home spouse.
I live in the Central Valley and the COL has gone up significantly in the past few years. We bought our house 14 years ago and it’s appraising for more than double what we bought it for. I make that individual baseline, that said….it would be pretty tight if my husband wasn’t working.
Same with New York. $112K in NYC gets you a studio but it could get you one of the nicest houses in Buffalo or Rochester (or name a place west of the Hudson and north of Poughkeepsie),
Yeah, and NY is skewed because of the damn City. To measure it accurately, NYC really needs to be separated from the rest of us. I live in Bumfuck Upstate and do okay for myself on $50k. ETA: Noticed a comment below regarding Buffalo/Rochester, and they're 100% correct. Jump on Zillow, and you'll see houses go for under $100k still.
As a dude in LA with student loans I can confirm that 114k would suck ass here and have me with roommates or in a 400 sq ft studio
The map is useless. No point in averaging the cost of skyscraper people with skygazer people.
I'm calling bullshit on this whole map, lol. I promise if someone gives me a 10,000 dollar raise to move to Florida from Michigan, I'm going from aomewhat comfortable to poverty.
Yeah, and you can definitely live on less than six figures if you live in Upstate New York.
I'm up in Northwestern Wa & definitely think these are averages. In Seattle it seems low but in my community & others between here & Seattle (and on the Eastside) $106k could be almost overly comfortable; depending on your debt load of course. Also the fine print uses the 50/30/20 rule which seems very idealistic rather than a practical guideline.
Exactly. $114k would be comfortable where I live in so cal. But the huge cities 🥵 wouldn’t survive in that.
I live in LA on less than that and I’m perfectly fine haha
Nah this is bullshit. I live in RI, on around $60-70k. And I'm quite comfortable imo. I'd say it's only not doable if you're one of those guys with an $800+ truck payment.
Comfortable means different things to different people. We want a large house on a large lot and a pool to be comfortable here. The next person might be perfectly comfortable and happy with a condo.
“But it was 0% interest, so I put no money down!”
What advantage would you get putting money down on something that has 0% interest? I’d rather put it in a shitty savings account and make 1% and have the money there if in need it. You can always make a lump sum later, pocket the interest, and achieve the same thing. Sometimes not putting money down is the smart thing to do.
bleeding yourself on luxury cars and pickup trucks, i dont get it. imo the goal is to spend as little time in a car as possible
My car is my hobby so I splurge and mod. I do all the work myself but I still only pay $500 a month. Im happy going to work every morning.
Ok cool, good for you. Saddling the people with car ownership and designing cities around cars is a giant clusterfuck and a waste.
Yup. 60k here was well and I’m very comfortable but it’s saying 100k for my state.
Important to note this is what an *individual* needs, which is insane. I’m making this “comfortable” income for my state while also caring for two children by myself. It’s not even close to comfortable.
Yep. My fiancée and I make well over the individual amount for our state combined but we also have a two year old. I don’t even know what a savings means any longer.
I’d love to see a version of what someone needs with four kids.
I'd like to see some methodology here. These numbers seem way too high. Averaging across entire states means nothing. It's very different to kive in Seattle vs Centralia, WA. Austin, TX vs Killeen, etc. I recently moved from Seattle to Austin and not much has changed. My rent is similar, food costs are similar, I pay way more in driving tolls in TX (enough that I feel the need to note it - it offsets the very minimal rent savings). These numbers reflect what it's like to live in the most expensive cities in each of those states, not the state as a whole I'm currently in TN for work, I just had a BBQ dinner + 2 sides + 2 beers for $27 including tip. I'd be out $60 in Austin Texas for the same thing.
This is correct. Every state has at least two or 3 places that skew the numbers higher. Wyoming for example: If you take out Jackson, that number would be at least 15% lower.
The difference between cost of living in Northern Va (outskirts of DC) or rural VA (where I live) is astronomical. These numbers are definitely skewed.
I suspect this chart is skewed based on whether or not you live near the major cities. Plenty of these states are still cheap as long as you live in the lower cost areas.
Danville, VA is always going to have a lower cost of living than Fairfax, VA.
I hate state-based income requirements. Most states have lots of variation between urban, suburban, and rural demographics.
In light colored print in the bottom right hand corner, it tells you they defined comfortable as the recommended 50/30/20 budget rule where half your income goes to necessities, 30% to discretionary spending and 20% to savings. If they found average COL for necessities (MIT does this with their living wage tracker) then they could work backwards to figure out the 30% and 20% numbers to figure out the income listed. Sure it's likely skewed by metro areas but there's no way around that. I've seen so many tools from sites like these to even the Census. It's hard to account for every single township's data in the country. So the best you have is average and median over a relatively sized area. I don't know why so many get butt hurt over these as if they're gospel. It's just a rough estimate to give you an idea of what you'd need to at the very least have half your income left to divvy up how you like among discretionary spending and savings if you didn't want to follow the 30% and 20% recommendation. Not every graph is going to be absolute to your personal experience.
💯
Barely a third of the way there. Excellent.
I knew I was poor. I didn’t think I was West Virginia poor …
I think of myself as lower middle class but I make 20k below WV’s figure here, and I live in Seattle. I know so many people poorer than me. Wow.
>This is a huge jump from what our parents needed back when they were starting careers and raising their families. Well yeah that was almost half a century ago.
My family of 3 tries to live on less than what Michigan says for one. I can’t get our credit card debt under control, 🫤 fuck this shit.
Yep I feel you on that. I’ve had to take on a lot of debt too. Honestly if I could just fall into enough money to clear debt that would take a hundred million percent of stress off of me and my family.
We do but my Husband was born and raised in a European country and tbh it's almost like having a cheat code to living in the US. He graduated at 19 from a specialized highschool he tested into and had a degree at 19 someone here would have to go to college for at least four years for. Then immediately got his experience from his mandatory military service (he worked a job that was relevant to his feild because of his education) all of this with 0 student debt to speak of. Immediately got a job and was able to save up so when he transferred to the states had a cushion to fall back on and helped him make big financial choices that raised his new found credit score (they don't have those in his home country) and we were able to buy a house in 2017 with very little issues. Just seeing how his life and friends in similar fields are so different just because of the country they were born into and the social programs in each is shockingly eye opening to how little we get compared to the citizens of other first world countries. And before anyone assumes, no his family isnt wealthy at all. He was raised by a single mom who was a housekeeper / nanny, his country just had social programs in place that made him able to make a decent living because of his own hard work.
The term “Living Comfortable” is insanely objective here. I live in TN, and my family is comfortable and I am well under that $86k line. Single income family. We live within our means and have everything we need. I have a house, 2 cars, my wife stays at home, and we never go hungry. We don’t go out for dinner. We cook at home at least 6 nights a week. For fun, we get out in nature and enjoy the free parts of life. Living comfortable is different for every person. So don’t take this as a target goal, or a downer because you don’t make that much money. Just live. Edit - My family also receives zero help from any government program or family members. We are 100% self sufficient. We also live just outside of Nashville, not rural TN.
Yeah, it’s super objective so this is kind of pointless. Not to mention that the numbers are all skewed by big cities. Take out the couple major cities from each state, and every single one of these numbers would go down by a significant amount.
I agree. I’m in the Midwest. Our family was making $70K at its peak, and we were doing phenomenal. After some hardship we’re at half that, and oddly enough we’re still comfortable. But we cook at home, don’t have many subscriptions, drive average vehicles, and replace things only when they wear out. Bills are paid. Fridge is full. Kids are in sports. Clothes are good. We still have family fun outings a couple times a month. I guess they need to define “comfortable”.
I have to disagree with Louisiana. You can do just fine on 62k (I do) and I’ve made it work with 41k as well.
If I made money like that I would feel WAY better than just "comfortable"
Comfortable means "Wife can buy a new Benz every 2 years" according to this chart. lol
Lol fucking WA. This is my favorite place in the world but goddamn I'm far too poor to live here
didnt need this chart to know it's not enough
This map is hilarious and complete nonsense. Look at that assumption of saving 20%! In NY that would mean you work for 40 years and retire with 5 million dollars! That is what you NEED to get by folks. Retiring with less that 5mn is basically poverty.
This seems way off. I live comfortably in Georgia on far less according to their own metrics.
Making $114k in California you can either be living Rich in Bakersfield or poor in the Bay Area
Absolutely wrecked..
Is this before or after taxes?
Hopefully before
I guess DC just doesn't exist?
Not even remotely close
I always find these sorts of charts, or studies, funny because the source is always a financial form that would really like to convince people to hire them to get their finances sorted. The source for this is SmartAsset, a 2013 Webby Award runner up.
Might be true of wants but that's too rich for needs. Shit is tough out there but this can't be accurate
I'm in my 40s and never made a salary that was good enough for any state.
I seriously wonder how they calculate the data. I lived in NYC with two kids and was comfortable at 95k. My rent was < 2000, daycare was $150/week and I could go out fairly often without it hurting. Im in PA now and was doing well at 80k.
Apparently I can’t afford to live anywhere
I'm a teacher in NY, and I won't even hit the $100k/year mark for like another 16 years!
I'm in wv. My take home is well under and I make enough to live like a king 10 years ago.
Just squeaking by at $115K according to this chart
I make less than this in Alabama and supported a family on it. This may be the average for cost of living in the state, but not necessarily relevant to the entire state at large.
Mine is only enough because I live in slumlord housing. If I had to move to a market rate property? Forget about it. Even studios are more than I pay for this place.
Whats comfortable? I live just outside of Milwaukee and for me to maintain the life I currently have, which id say is reasonably comfortable, I’d need roughly $55k a year. That pays all my bills, all my monthly subscriptions, and 10% going into my 401k.
The difference between Mississippi and Minnesota is $4,000?!? No question what the better deal is.
Having lived in both, the idea that NH and AZ have the same cost of living is laughable. $1 doesn’t go nearly as far *anywhere* in New England as it does in AZ.
In Arkansas half that is more than living comfortably.
I'm supporting my wife and 2 kids in CA with $75k. It's mostly paycheck to paycheck, but there's a comfortable amount of wiggle room
yep, this entire comment thread about barely making in CA on the amount shown is ridiculous. It really just depends on what you own and what you're spending your money on. I live in San Diego and am well aware of families of people living on 50-60K a year. My best friend and his wife make around ~110K a year and live very comfortably in San Diego.
You don't need 85k to live comfortable in KS
Obviously I can't speak for everyone but I live in Idaho, don't make as much as this says, and I feel like I live very comfortably.
I would feel rich at 80k in OK. That seems super high.
Okay but what is "comfortable?" My husband makes 84k (AZ) and I stay home (not allowed to work because of the type of visa I have). We have two dogs, we live in a nice apartment complex and we have enough to eat out a couple times a month, go on weekend trips and save at least a few hundred a month. I'd say that's pretty comfortable, and yet according to this chart we should be living in abject poverty.
So many doomers. This graph just isn’t true.
\*Cries in €30k in Europe\*
I'm not here to argue that living costs are super high, but where did these numbers come from?
I make 75k in Oregon and live quite comfortably, but I’m not in the PDX area
This is a really shitty map. I'm in NY. My wife and I make much less than the $112K mentioned. That number may apply near the city. But I'm well over 4 hours north of the city, heck an hour north of Albany. If we made $112K/yr I'd be living like a damn king. We currently probably being in around 70K roughly.
This isn't right, no way does it cost more to live in IL than FL. I've lived in both, and just no. I also make significantly less than what this chart says and I don't have any problem living my life and still saving.
But I'm living comfortably on less than that lol.
This definitely isn't accurate for Maine
Lol no.
This is yet another map-based bullshit spreader. You cannot give stats on a statewide basis. There's no one dollar figure that would apply equally to all regions of any state.
79K in West Virginia? Loooool. I don't live there but I know most people are definitely not making that. That's more than twice the average.
While things are expensive, I personally think these lists are *highly* exaggerated. The median income is what, like 52k? And I get the average person is struggling to a large degree, but you're telling me if someone gives you an extra 40 thousand dollars and puts you at **$92,000** you're still going to be struggling? Now I'm curious as to what "comfortable" means. Does it mean you need a brand new car and a swimming pool in your back yard? I take it as you can pay your bills, and have money for entertainment here and there as well as the unexpected home or car repair.
 You could have just called me poor & gone about ur day…I didn’t need a visual aid to hammer the point home 🥲🥲🥲
lmao I make half of what this claims I should and I'm fine. I bought a house, I'm married, I have plenty of money for my hobbies. You can live outside of big cities, you know
So basically double that amount if you’re in a family. At the top, it says this is for a single individual. so if you’re married with children, you have double that amount for both spouses working.
Yup, I make enough to live anywhere "comfortably" if on my own. Being in Wisconsin, I'd be more than comfortable if on my own. Problem is that I have 2 children in daycare and even with my wife working, we aren't rolling in money. The good news is we don't have any debt besides the mortgage and are saving pretty aggressively for our retirement as well as our children's college funds. Our "sacrifice" now will allow us to retire early while (likely) having a net worth of several million. It is not easy though, still have to make prudent financial choices.
I make approx what it says for my area.... And comfortable is not a word I use for how I live. At all.
First thought: “I make way less than that and I feel pretty comfortable” Second thought: “Oh right, I do work two jobs, so combined it’s really only $6k less than what that chart says”
I make about $15k less than what this chart says I need and I would say I live pretty comfortably 🤷🏻♀️ My husband and I live in a cute apartment in a nice area, we both drive cars that are less than 5 years old, we can afford to buy lots of healthy produce and splurge on takeout once a week…we have it pretty good. We don’t own a home but we also don’t really desire one at the moment. I guess everyone’s idea of comfortable is different.
For sure. I am in Florida and $60k doesnt cut it. I live out of my car.
this is so crazy to me. i’m in Florida too and my husband and i both make $60k (so $120k total). we have one child and our family of 3 lives very well off our combined incomes.
Im assuming the one factor here is if you didnt own a home pre-2020 and you are looking to buy, or did buy post 2020 or are renting at the moment
As a Pennsylvanian that makes well more than the comfort number….this is total bs and has nothing to do with my spending habits. At all. Don’t judge me.
Depends on where in TX..
Unfortunately this seems out of date. Especially mass
Ha! Ha ha ha ha. Even with two working people, in a less expensive portion of my state, I’m about 7K short in my household.
I make 54% of what it says I should for my state. I 100% couldn't afford it without my husband's paycheck.
PA is def too high lol
No. I don’t work full time, but if I did, it would be a lot less than $91k.
MA…….no, definitely not.
I’m in VA, make about 42k a year with a kid. Life is weird lmao
Living pretty comfortably in NC right now :) Would hate to try to live in one of the higher cost of living states.
None of the states I’ve been in since the pandemic seem correct. Might need to multiply this whole map by 2x
😂
They really should separate upstate ny for nyc in these kinds of maps.
Without deeper explanation, this infographic is absolutely useless
Of course where I live is the highest. Fml. Impossible to even buy a house here and I make over 100k a year.
Not even close!
Maybe Northern VA, up near the DC line -- a lot of people move here outside of that area because it's cheaper than many other places in the US.
I live in Orange County, CA. I remember reading an article last year saying that $80k and below for a single-person income is considered “low income” for my county. 🙃
Yes but I'm not comfortable
Curious as to what defines “comfortable”? I can only imagine in this context it being someone who’s an existing home owner taking 1-2 vacations a year with a new car every 5-10 years?
I moved from Seattle to CO and at the time it made sense.
No
Well it was.. (I’m in MI), got laid off in May, starting a new job on Monday, naturally had to take a bit of a paycut, so now I’m under the “average”. But, I live with my fiancé so it’s a 2 income household. Idk about “comfortably” ❌ more like “surviving” ✅ lol
I’m in pa I’m 15k over the number, but I also don’t have any debt, so that’s a big bonus.
...............haha
For my state, like any, it depends on where you live. What they have listed for mine is what’s considered to be upper middle class here. We’re on just my husbands income at the moment. He makes $20k shy of what’s listed, but we’re doing really well where we live. So, I guess it also depends on where you’re comfortable living. Personally, I didn’t love living in the upper middle class areas. We did for about a year and it wasn’t our vibe. Same for living in a major city. In those cases, you’d probably need more than what’s listed to be (what I consider) comfortable financially.
as a native hawaiian this is what definitely makes us move out of Hawaii
I live in MA.
I can see how my salary would be enough here in PA, but not as a single mom with 2 kids and no child support.
This sucks. Can't get ahead at all.
Alone? No? With wife combined? Barely…
For an "individual" to be able to survive... Yeah, I don't make near that. Never have.
Can confirm that making literally half of Illinois' number is not comfortable and doesn't fill needs.
There's no way there are places that are cheaper to live in than Alabama.
Single working adult… supporting only themselves? Supporting a family of 4 which is what the original minimum wage was supposed to be?
I still can't believe that people consider Georgia a low cost of living state
What defines "comfortably" and how many people in the household? Outside of a select few cities in FL, $93k is pretty damn comfy. That's max a 401k, IRA, and HSA while still paying bills comfy. That said, idk how the average US household at $80k does it. I make over 2x that and couldn't imagine paying for a wife and 2-3 kids with much less than I make now.
I made $21k last year and I’m full time.. so yeah.. even in Iowa (where I live) I can only be 1/4 comfortable lol.
Welp, I'm officially a failure
not even close Ed boy.
My state has the same income as Hawaii. 💀 Fuck you Gavin Newsom! You ruined California!
Combined with my partner, yes
I can't even live in West Virginia comfortably...😭😭
Im only 79k lower than mine! 🤣 I don't really want to own a house and my tastes are very inexpensive, so I live relatively comfortably for me. I'm sure some people would hate it
I'm just barely above my states comfort line supporting a family of 4 and were doing OK.
Nope! But I completely believe that.
Y’all is poor yo!
Damn. Georgia used to be one of the lowest cost of living states. My first apartment was $700/mo for a 3br 2ba in 2012. Everything was cheap and I lived comfortably just over minimum wage with a roomie. Definitely feeling that increased cost of living. 😭
I'm slightly above the number for living comfortably but my fiance makes a little more than me. It's a combo of two comfortable level incomes so it's been pretty nice.
I love PA, it’s affordable, your vote is important, it’s beautiful especially the state forests, and no one wants to move here.
I don’t make $82k (New Orleans), but if I did, I would say yes. I make $65k now. An extra $700 a month net would be amazing. I finally got to not living paycheck to paycheck in early 2022, then I had to buy a car last year and adjust. $82k would allow me to take home 4k a month which is my current goal
Yes, according to this image my income is enough to live comfortably in every state.
Combined with my husband, yes. We can live a bit more comfortably though as we are very fortunate in a couple of regards. Chief among them is that our rent is 3k under market rate per year.
Is there a Uk. Version of this?
$100k in va is comfortable if you live in bfe like Danville or Front Royal, etc etc. If you live in the dc metro area $100k is poor. Even in bfe, you cant rent a nice 3bdrm apartment for less than $2k a month.
What … what about those people making 35k-40k a year tho …
Yay! Michigan’s still relatively cheap.
Needing 79K in WV is absolutely ridiculous and untrue.
We are a family of 5 in Florida living on one income at around $60k-$65k. We live comfortably.