The salary a single person needs to live comfortably in 25 major U.S. cities (2024)

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The salary a single person needs to live comfortably in 25 major U.S. cities? ›

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.

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.

How much does the average American make a year? 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.

On average, an individual needs $96,500 for sustainable comfort in a major U.S. city.

An individual needs $96,500, on average, to live comfortably in a major U.S. city. That figure is even higher for families, who need to earn an average combined income of about $235,000 to support two adults and two children.

The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. The savings category also includes money you will need to realize your future goals.

A single adult living in New York City would need to make $138,570 a year in order to live comfortably, according to the study. That equates to an hourly wage of $66.62. To cover the cost of just necessities as a single person in New York City, you would need to make an estimated $70,000, according to SmartAsset.

You also need an annual household salary of at least $50,000 to be considered middle class in 17 other states, including California, New York, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Hawaii. In California, the difference is $122,000, from a salary of $61,028 on the lower end to $183,102 on the upper end.

Top five most expensive states to be single:

California: $80,013. New York: $73,226. Alaska: $71,570.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the national average salary in 2021 was $58,260. Although wages above the average could be seen as a good salary, there are no hard and fast rules regarding how to determine a good salary since there are many factors involved.

What state has the most affordable living? ›

See how we rank budget-friendly states and examine how all 50 states stack up in terms of living expenses. The most affordable state is Utah, where residents spend the least percentage of their income on necessities (63.3%) and have the most annual income left over ($32,732).

SmartAsset says a single working adult must earn at least $114,000, or about $55 an hour, to support themselves in the Golden State. When it comes to a basic “living wage,” MIT says a single adult in California needs to earn $27.32 per hour or $56,800 per 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.

More than 2,500 US adults said they would need to earn, on average, $233,000 a year to feel financially secure and $483,000 annually to feel rich or to attain financial freedom, according to a new survey from Bankrate.

While California ranks third-most expensive for a single adult to live comfortably at $113,652, it only ranks fifth-most expensive for two working adults raising two children. The total family income should be at least $276,724 in the latter case.

Again, living expenses vary significantly by location, but we can use some average numbers. The average monthly living expenses for a single person in the USA are $3,189, which is $38,266 per year. The average cost for a family of four is $7,095 per month, which is $85,139 per year.

Highlights. Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2021 estimate of $76,330 (Figure 1 and Table A-1).

The average monthly expenses for one person in 2022 were $3,693, up 8.5% from 2021. That translates into an increase of $287.75 per month. The 2022 average for annual expenses was $44,312. That is less than half of the average expenses for a family of four, which was over $100,000.