I think the key term here is “get by.” They’re showing roughly $65k per year for my state. You certainly won’t starve, but you will never have enough to buy a house, spend money on hobbies, raise a family, take a vacation, etc. That’s not just in urban areas, that’s everywhere.
Cost of living compared to average income is far too high everywhere in the US. I feel like this article downplays exactly how bad it really is. Life should be more than just getting by.
Yeah, my state is way off too. I remember when I was making what they consider “getting by” for my state and I would not have said I was “getting by” at that point in my life. I was living in a small apartment in my friends’ house, had a car that was nearly 20 years old and had no money for savings…definitely not the 20% the article claims it factors in. And this was 14 years ago, so it’s only gotten worse since then.
Because they’re calculating this by state, most states are probably pretty understated for anyone living in a city. I know they’re pretty damn low for my state.
The data really should be split by urban and rural or even just smaller cities. I’ve lived in both Central New York (Syracuse) and NYC. We were not surviving and almost lost everything living on half of what the article suggested in one of the cheapest parts of NYC. We are rebuilding now, making only a touch more in CNY. We may even be able to afford a house in a couple years still making much less than 70k.
I’m in Austin, TX.
My wife and I pull in about $85k a year, give or take.
We both had to withdraw all of our (admittedly limited) savings (about $4k) and use about every dime of our paychecks to move a couple of weeks ago. The movers cost us $500. First month’s rent plus another for a deposit (bad credit - bankruptcy due to a failed business) was $2,600. Then we still had to pay our old apartment about $1,100 for the last month of rent. Oh, and the $250 deposit for the movers. Also the fact that we couldn’t really cook in the last week because we needed the kitchen in the old place clean.
But I’m saving $25/month on our internet because I’m poor, so I’ve got that going for me. And the new place is 33 sq. ft. bigger and has a garage for the same price as the old place.
Way less than I thought for many states. I can’t believe Colorado is less than $60k; that’s way more realistic than I would have thought.
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Sorry to hear you’re struggling.
But it sounds like you have dependents, meaning your number should be much higher than what the article gives - it’s talking about single people. So if anything, it’s evidence that your experience is justified and that you’re right - you have it tough.
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Depends on if you have crushing debt or not.
I did some napkin math a while ago for living okay and it came out to about their numbers. I assumed minimal debt, though, and pretty thin margins.
These numbers feel so high to me. I guess my definition of “get by” is different than theirs.
does your definition of getting by include 30% of your income being used on whatever and 20% of your income going into savings and the other 50% going toward necessities?
I’m within commuting distance of Chicago, on the Illinois side of the line. For clarity, I don’t make that commute - I’m totally done spending hundreds of dollars a month and my valuable personal time on commuting.
Illinois is supposedly around $49k. That’s low for Champaign county, and clearly does not account for Chicago in a reasonable way.
The real numbers are far more depressing, and less reasonable. Factor in the variations from e.g., Springfield (median income $32k) vs Cook and Lake Counties, and it’s even less accurate.
