The crux of this issue, why everyone has something to say about it: is because the word ‘comfortably’ seems open to interpretation. But it’s defined in a way that makes sense here.
For the purposes of the referenced study https://smartasset.com/data-studies/salary-needed-live-comfortably-2024, they used the MIT Living Wage Calculator https://livingwage.mit.edu/ and extrapolated out total compensation needed to maintain the 50/30/20 rule, where 50% of your total income goes to necessities, 30% to entertainment and wants, and 20% to investments or debt payments.
So it’s really not up for debate unless you’d like to argue against the figures presented in the MIT Living Wage calculator or the 50/30/20 ‘rule’.
Define comfort.
Looks like these numbers came from a report by SmartAsset, which took it’s numbers from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Here’s a link to their methodology:
https://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/methodology
Relevant definitions:
At its simplest, a living wage is what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.
There are eight basic needs – food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, civic engagement, broadband, and other necessities – that make up the cost components of the living wage, with an additional cost associated with income and payroll taxes.
EDIT: It looks like the SmartAsset report used their 50/30/20 rule to estimate their “comfortable” living wage. 50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% paying down debts. The MIT calculator bundles some needs and wants together, so it appears that SmartAsset teased out the expenses they categorize as “needs,” e.g., food, housing, and transportation, and then they doubled it.
A bit misleading picture. So one adult is 96k, and a family of 4 is 235k. 2 adults would be around the 160k I guess, since they hare rent/mortgage. 2 children then cost around 75k.
Still, 96k for one adult? Seems high. They must factor in the highest rent and most expensive (middle class) car and vacations.
What is the source?
Yeah, their definition of “comfort” seems to be a solidly middle class experience of going to Disney world and…other middle class stuff? I live alone in nyc and I’m plenty comfortable, but I’m not making 140k.
Going to Disney World is middle class? Pretty sure that taking lavish annual vacations has always been an upper class activity.
No, going to Disney world and taking yearly vacations used to be considered middle class. On one income, by the way. We’re just so beaten down these days that we consider basic life enjoyment and time off away from the house “upper class.” I’m old enough to tell you it wasn’t, and it hasn’t been this way very long.
