This is how much singles need to live comfortably in California (2024)

FAQs

This is how much singles need to live comfortably in California? ›

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.

But just how much does a single person in California need to make to live comfortably? A new study from Smart Asset determined that a person must make at least $ 89,190 to get by comfortably.

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. Living alone comes with added costs that can be more than double what you'd spend if you lived with someone else — otherwise known as the “singles tax.”

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. Luckily, whether a person is just starting out in a new role or already has some experience, there are indeed many opportunities in this pay range.

Most places it is plenty to live on. Avoid the most expensive cities like San Francisco, NYC and Seattle and you will be fine. A city like Ft Wayne, Indiana will have you living well on that. For a more expensive city like Seattle, you would need to also have assets like a house.

A study from Purdue University and GoBankingRates.com found that you need a minimum annual salary of $143,220 to be happy in California, citing "California's notoriously high cost of living."

The average monthly expenses for one person can vary, but the average single person spends about $3,405 per month. Housing tends to consume the highest portion of monthly income, with the average annual spending on housing at $1,885 per month per person.

Is $80K a good salary for a single person? $80,000 is about $5,000 higher than the U.S. median household income, so many people would consider it very good for a single person. “Good” is always a relative term when it comes to salary; whether or not the amount you earn covers your expenses is a highly personal dynamic.

Here, a single person needs $110,781 annually or $53.26 in hourly wages to be comfortable, according to the data. For a family of two working adults with two children, a salary of $276,557 is needed.

Is $30 an hour good in California? ›

California ranks number 4 out of 50 states nationwide for 30$ An Hour job salaries. To estimate the most accurate annual salary range for 30$ An Hour jobs, ZipRecruiter continuously scans its database of millions of active jobs published locally throughout America.

As of May 13, 2024, the average hourly pay for a 25 Dollar An Hour in California is $19.13 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing salaries as high as $40.49 and as low as $9.42, the majority of 25 Dollar An Hour salaries currently range between $13.89 (25th percentile) to $22.60 (75th percentile) in California.

$80,000 a year is how much an hour? If you make $80,000 a year, your hourly salary would be $38.46.

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. A family of four would need to make much more at $235,000 to avoid living paycheck to paycheck. You can view SmartAsset's full list here.

A single person needs upwards of $80,000 a year to live comfortably in California, survey data shows.

As of Apr 23, 2024, the average hourly pay for an An Hour in California is $18.55 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing salaries as high as $35.11 and as low as $5.22, the majority of An Hour salaries currently range between $15.91 (25th percentile) to $21.59 (75th percentile) in California.

Median Household Income: $91,905. Average Household Income: $130,718. Per Capita Income: $45,591. 17.9% of Households in California are High Income Households that make over $200,000 a year.