The salary you need to live comfortably in 15 major U.S. cities (2024)

FAQs

How much salary is needed to live comfortably in the USA? ›

The national median for living comfortably alone is $89,461, which suggests that a 50/30/20 budget might not be practical for most single people.

Two other Texas cities, El Paso and Lubbock, were close behind Houston for both household sizes. Overall, SmartAsset found that to live comfortably in any major city, you need to make about $96,500 annually, up immensely from the nearly $68,500 it estimated last year.

To live “comfortably” as a single person in 99 of the largest U.S. metro areas, you'll need a median income of $93,933, according to a recent SmartAsset analysis.

Can You Live on 3000 a Month? Whether $3000 a month is good for you depends on the number of family members you have and the quality of living you want to sustain. If you're single and don't have a family to take care of, $3000 is enough to get you through the month comfortably.

While people have different qualifications and different ideas of what constitutes a good salary, most would consider $75,000 per year to be good pay.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the average U.S. annual salary in Q4 of 2023 was $59,384. This is up 5.4% from the same time period in 2022 when the average American was making $56,316 per year. Average weekly earnings reached $1,142, while the average American made $4,949 per month in Q4 of 2023.

A family of four needs to make more than $275,000 to live comfortably in some of the most expensive U.S. cities, a recent SmartAsset analysis reveals. “Comfortable” is defined as the income needed to cover a 50/30/20 budget for a family of two adults and two kids.

By the Census data, it means that if you earn between $50,000 and $150,000 a year, you are considered middle class. It's a pretty straightforward answer, but it isn't particularly helpful if you're trying to climb up out of a lower income bracket into the middle class.

Researchers say a single adult needs to make more than $138,000, or an hourly wage of $66.62, to live comfortably while a family of 4 needs more than $318,000. According to Smart Asset, to cover necessities as a single person in New York City, you'll need an estimated $70,000 in wages.

How many Americans make over 50k? ›

What's considered a “good” salary in Texas depends on your household size and lifestyle, but most Texans make between $45,000 and $100,000 annually. Texas cities have differing costs of living, of course — Austin is much pricier than Amarillo — so where you live in the Lone Star State also matters.

Mississippi: According to World Population Review, in 2023, Mississippi holds the title of the cheapest state to live in the United States. Its cost of living index is 85, and overall costs in the state are 17% lower than the national average.

How much is $60,000 a year per hour? A $60,000 annual salary is equivalent to earning a $28.85 hourly wage, or $230.80 each day. This is based on the employee working for eight hours a day, 52 weeks a year.

A person must earn $44,175 a year (before taxes) — or $21.24 an hour — to make a livable wage in California now, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage calculator, which is updated annually.

If you're single and have a salary of $70k, you are part of above-average earners in the U.S. Depending on where you live, you may be able to live comfortably on a $70,000 salary as a single person.

Yes, you can, in most places of the country. I'm not talking about New York City, LA, San Fran, or any other major city. You likely won't be able to afford to live in those places. But in average or lower cost areas, you should be able to.

It's quite possible to live well on $30,000 per year if you're debt-free, but what if you have debt? I would recommend trying to pay it off as quickly as possible with the debt snowball approach. Cut your expenses as much as you can and put the amount you save toward debt each month.

The average personal salary in the U.S. is $63,214, meaning that $60,000 is a healthy amount. Of course, this also depends on your location, age, etc., but as a single person, you should be able to live comfortably in most places.