CNBC | Tuesday, April 16, 2024 
The Salary a Single Person Needs to Live Comfortably in Every U.S. State

A single person will need to earn over six figures to live comfortably in the most expensive U.S. states, a SmartAsset analysis reveals. “Comfortable” is defined as the monthly income needed to cover a 50/30/20 budget, which allocates 50% of your earnings for necessities like housing and utility costs, 30% for discretionary spending and 20% for savings or investments. The income needed for each state was extrapolated based on the cost of necessities, using data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Here’s a look at the five most-costly sates for single workers, based on how much money residents would need to earn each year to live comfortably. (1.) Massachusetts: $116,022 (2.) Hawaii: $113,693 (3.) California: $113,651 (4.) New York: $111,738 (5.) Washington: $106,496. To live comfortably on your own in these states, you’d need to earn nearly double what most single earners typically make, as the U.S median income for single, full-time workers is around $60,000, per Labor Bureau data. 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.” Housing is the most obvious expense, but single people also pay extra costs for groceries, travel…Read more