You need to make a lot of money to ‘live comfortably’ in Boston, new study says

Frank O'Laughlin
·2 min read
6

A new study has pinpointed how much money you must make yearly to “live comfortably” in Boston. Hint: it’s a lot.

Financial advice SmartAsset recently published the results of a study aimed at finding the pre-tax salary needed to live comfortably in 99 U.S. cities.

“While cost of living premiums and inflation metrics capture the price increases in goods and services, they do not necessarily account for all the additional costs needed to live comfortably – such as a buffer from the stress of living paycheck to paycheck,” SmartAsset wrote.

SmartAsset says it used MIT Living Wage Calculator data to gather the basic cost of living for an individual with no children and two working adults with two children. That data included the cost of necessities including housing, food, transportation, and income taxes.

Those costs were then applied to the 50/30/20 budget, which recommends that for sustainable comfort, 50% of your salary should be allocated to your needs, such as housing, groceries, and transportation; 30% toward wants like entertainment and hobbies; and 20% toward paying off debt, saving or investing.

After crunching the data, SmartAsset ranked Boston fifth among the top 10 cities in America with the highest salaries needed to live comfortably:

  • Hourly wage needed for a single adult: $60.08

  • Annual salary needed for a single adult to live comfortably: $124,966

  • Combined salaries for two working adults with two children needed: $319,738

New York City, New York, topped SmartAsset’s list with an annual salary of $138,570 needed for a single adult to live comfortably. The California communities of San Jose, Irvine, and Santa Ana rounded out the top 10.

The Texas cities of Houston, El Paso, Lubbock, and Laredo, as well as Toledo, Ohio, were the top five cities with the lowest salaries needed to live comfortably.

View the salary needed to live comfortably in all 99 cities ranked by SmartAsset below:

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