• fishpen0@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It also depends on where they live and if they have student loans. For example the comfortable living salary in Boston has passed 80k. Low level analysts even here can still be making 80-90. Enough for an apartment, but not to add kids to the picture. Things get even weirder if you are mostly equity compensated at a startup or something like that (so your total comp is not actually spendable and you have a higher tax burden) which is pretty common in tech roles around here. This couple may be the textbook example of HENRYs, the modern DINK. High Earners, But Not Rich Yet. If they dont have kids they might retire upper middle class or wealthy. If they do they’ll stay in their current wealth class or become poorer.

    A new report from SmartAsset says a single person in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area has to pull in a salary of almost $80,000 a year to “live comfortably.” The study is based on a theoretical budget where a person spends half their income on needs, 30% on “wants” and the rest on savings or repaying debt.

    “A single person needs to earn $78,752 after taxes in order to cover basic living expenses ($39,376) and still devote half of their earnings to wants and saving/debt,” the report for Boston states. “Following the 50/30/20 budget, a person living comfortably would allocate $23,626 for discretionary spending and $15,750 to savings or debt payments.”