Single Americans Earning the Average Salary Don't Get to "Live Comfortably" in the USA
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The median annual wage for individuals was just below $62,000 at the end of 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it takes a salary of at least $80,829 for a single adult to live comfortably in West Virginia, the most affordable state, according to a recent SmartAsset study.
There is a framework referenced in the article for what "living comfortably" means.
And there is a list of salaries thought to be required for a single adult to be able to "live comfortably" for each of the states.
I suspect they don't take "sharing an apartment with a roommate" or "living with your parents/siblings" into account.
Not sure if you folks see young adults (say, after leaving school but before getting married) "sharing an apartment" these days. I thought that used to be common back when I was a "young adult."
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@Mik said in Single Americans Earning the Average Salary Don't Get to "Live Comfortably" in the USA:
No, it's tough. My daughter makes more than that and still has a hard time making ends meet.
Fair enough, and yes it's more expensive to live here so you need to make more.
I was just thinking more along the lines that 60 percent (!) of people in the world do not even have a toilet in their home, or that 2 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.
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It is. We got ours through five undergrad year with no debt and a car. Ever since then she's made consistently good decisions. A lot of that is we normally involved her in the reasoning process behind how we made decisions as a family.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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Good example, Mik. We are saving via 529 plans, and I have UTMAs I'll (automatically) transfer to them when they turn 21. Hopefully it shows the power of compound interest over the 21 years, they can use it to help with a down payment on a home or (hopefully) just continue saving each month to it and having a good chunk of change by the time they're 40 or 50. My parents were great but they never taught me any financial literacy, and I know we've talked about it here before, but I'm hoping to teach what I learned in my 30s to my kids by the time they graduate.
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So, how to plan ...
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ROI analysis. Be sure to do an ROI analysis before choosing a college or a field of study. Unless you are sure you can pass down an inheritance that can last your child's lifetime, your child is in no position to "follow the heart" in any way that is not favorably supported by the ROI analysis when it comes to choosing a school, a field of study, a profession, maybe even a spouse.
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Financial literacy. No more of this "my parents are great though they did not teach me financial literacy" stuff. Going forward, parents who do not teach their kids financial literacy are automatically disqualified from being labeled "great parents."
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Plumbing school reserve. Be sure to reserve extra money for plumbing school just in case AI takes over whatever job you or your kid thinks s/he's going to have after graduating college. (Of course, the large inheritance exception also applies here.)
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It is. We got ours through five undergrad year with no debt and a car. Ever since then she's made consistently good decisions. A lot of that is we normally involved her in the reasoning process behind how we made decisions as a family.
@Mik said in Single Americans Earning the Average Salary Don't Get to "Live Comfortably" in the USA:
It is. We got ours through five undergrad year with no debt and a car. Ever since then she's made consistently good decisions. A lot of that is we normally involved her in the reasoning process behind how we made decisions as a family.
White Privilege. This is EXACTLY what systematic racism looks like. (And FWIW my wife and I did the same for our kids. We, like Mic try to be good parents.) And talking about money, not as a fixation, but gently explaining situations and costs and rewards all through a kids life gives them some understanding of what life really looks like. Nothing worse than being brought up in a fictional universe and then at 18 or 21 being thrust out there in the real world to fend for yourself.
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We’ve paid half the tuition and are paying the interest on the loans. Luke is paying the principal.
That being said, I think it’s been tough living at the median income with a single income since the 80s, when the majority of families became two income households.
