(NEXSTAR) – Earning enough to feel comfortable can mean different things and require a very different income, especially based on where you live. A recent report shows that, in some cases, that means earning more than a quarter of a million dollars.
Personal finance site SmartAsset reviewed data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator and applied it to a common budgeting method known as the 50/30/20 rule — 50% of your budget should cover your needs, 30% goes toward “wants,” and 20% for debt, saving, or investing — to find the pre-tax salary necessary for Americans to “live comfortably.”
A portion of the analysis was focused on the income a family of four, comprised of two working adults and two children, would need to live comfortably throughout the U.S.
Nowhere was it more expensive than Massachusetts, where a family would need an income of more than $313,000 to achieve the aforementioned definition of comfortable living. This was the only state where a family’s necessary income was found to be over $300,000. Hawaii wasn’t far behind, though, at nearly $294,400.
The costs of wants, needs, and saving money aren’t that high everywhere, however.
In total, SmartAsset found seven states in which a family earning less than $200,000 could still afford to live comfortably.
At the top of that list was Mississippi, where a family of four would require an income of less than $186,700 based on the 50/30/20 rule. While less than what that same family would need in Massachusetts, it’s a nearly 5 percent increase over the $177,800 determined to be necessary in Mississippi in SmartAsset’s 2024 report.
The remaining affordable states were primarily east of the Mississippi River. Narrowly falling within the group was Louisiana, where a family of four requires an income of about $199,600.
The states SmartAsset found to be most affordable for a family were:
- Mississippi: $186,618
- Kentucky: $192,941
- Arkansas: $193,773
- Alabama: $194,522
- West Virginia: $195,354
- South Dakota: $197,933
- Louisiana: $199,597
In a handful of states, a family’s cost of living comfortably has declined since SmartAsset’s 2024 report.
Iowa has experienced the largest decrease, going from a necessary salary of $211,400 to about $202,700, according to SmartAsset, marking a roughly 4 percent drop. A fellow Midwestern state, Michigan, saw a similar drop of about 3.2 percent, going from $214,500 to $207,600.
Other states where the costs for a family to live comfortably have declined were Delaware (2.5 percent), Georgia (0.9 percent), New York (0.7 percent), and Hawaii (0.08 percent).
Three states, meanwhile, saw noticeably larger jumps. SmartAsset found that a family of four in Vermont, for example, now needs an income of $286,800 to live comfortably. That’s nearly 15.5 percent more than last year, when an income of $248,400 would suffice.
New Jersey and Montana also saw large increases, with 12.5 percent and 11.1 percent increases, respectively.
You can view SmartAsset’s full report here.
Nationally, SmartAsset found the median salary needed for a family of four to live comfortably was around $223,100.