I guess my breakdown is around 10/20/30.

My son is in his first year as an engineer in Richmond, Indiana.

The state average is $85K. Likely driven by high costs in Indianapolis, South Bend, and the chicago land suburbs.

In Richmond, 76K allows him to live well. He is renting.

However, some of his friends who got offers of 3-5K higher to work in Atlanta or Chicago are definitely struggling.

I have 2 kids in mass that both own their own homes, live alone, and don't make anywhere near what is quoted in that article.

They aren't struggling.

What are they missing?

Because I'm in th Western ("less expensive&quot part of the state and $116K doesn't seem out of line for what I see in housing and other necessities. That's short my $56K income, and I have to have two housemates to make ends meets. It isn't BS - and you may not fully know your sons' financial situations.

One in marlboro, one in worc.

Remove the number one in this figure and it is very close to my income per year.

How do I mange w/o the extra $1,00,000 a year?

Barely, that is how.

I do have the advantage of a paid-off mortgage, but add home insurance, car insurance, health insurance, property tax, and utilities and it is still nearly 60% of my income.

"Living comfortably" means different things to different folks. Also, I know living in a city is more expensive than living out in the sticks like I do.

Are these people aware there is more to PA than fuckin Philly? 60k will do ya.

I'm retired early now, which was made possible because I made $70k/year for awhile, and saved up enough money to cover several years of living expenses. The problem with the study is that it over-estimates actual living costs, and assumes people can't choose to live in lower cost areas or modify their lifestyles to fit their incomes. In my case I grew up relatively poor, so have always had pretty frugal habits.

I'd add, my daughter moved to the Portland area and supports herself just fine on about $70k. So even in the expensive areas it's not necessarily that difficult.

Every time I get homesick, I check what the rents are in various neighborhoods and I'm not homesick any more.

Funny how that works.

Is any state under $80K?

It's obscene that slave states still have that $7.25/hr minimum wage.

I don’t know about it’s accuracy in other areas. Where I am it’s right on the mark.

During the self imposed down time during the early pandemic, having nothing better to do, I took a deep dive into my finances. I came to the weird realization that almost HALF of my income was going to support… My income!

Since then, I have pruned it carefully and now most of my income is going to support me! Nice, eh? Not only am I happier and doing what I want, it has curtailed the smacks on the back of my head from my accountant.

Thank you for your reply. ❤️