$ needed to live confortably in 50 cities

[ScubaCinci]

I thought this was interesting. Those making over $45K in Cbus should be living "comfortably" (Cleveland is $42.5).

http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/much-money-need-live-comfortably-biggest-cities/

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how much money a single person needs to earn in that city to follow a 50-30-20 budget.

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• Income needed: $45,466
• 50 percent for necessities: $22,733
• 30 percent for discretionary spending: $13,640
• 20 percent for savings: $9,093

Columbus residents earning the local median income of $44,774 are only $692 short of the annual amount needed to comfortably cover needs, wants and savings.

 

[Tonik]

This raises something that has been bothering me for some time.  Expectations seems to be at an all time high.  People expect new Iphones, and big screen TV's and new leased cars and McMansions and eating out 75 percent of the time.

That isn't comfortable, that isn't even middle class. That is upper middle class.

[ScubaCinci]

Yeah, people are buying gadgets and fluff rather than saving for retirement. I know a lot of people who have virtually nothing saved for retirement and aren't actively contributing anything to a retirement account. It's going to be pretty bad in the next 20-30 years. I've been pretty lucky in that the firm that I work for gives a significant 401k match and I have been max funding since the market downturn in 2008. I understand that when you are starving it's hard to save for the future. When I was in my early to mid 20's I barely saved anything and was one car breakdown away from financial ruin but managed to literally work my way out of it. As usual, knowing what I know now, I'd do things differently. It takes a lot less savings if you start when you are young compared to trying to catch up when you are older. Compounding growth is a wonderful thing.

[motocat12]

"Comfortable" is an interesting factor for a study, especially one posted on gobankingrates.com.

The income doesn't seem out of line.

However I think the expectation is the people are saving for retirement with the earnings, where they're actually investing it in crappy imported electronics and soul-selling cable plans.

[motocat12]

3 minutes ago, ScubaCinci said:

 It's going to be pretty bad in the next 20-30 years.

You mean I can't just vote for a socialist president to bail me out adding debt to the next generations?

[Bad324]

So does this include just Cleveland proper then? That number would be dumb when you start to include suburbs plus comfortable is too subjective