About fifteen years ago, a study recommended that an annual income of $75k would allow “living without worrying about spending”, or something like that.
At the time, that seemed to fit my personal experience.
I’ve seen comments that, in 2020, a “worry free” income was about $105k.
Which, at the time seemed too high.
The 75k and the 105k estimates were for “family income”. Ie all income for a household, whether a single income or multiple incomes (married, two income).
I assume these are all PRE TAX.
I’ve kept watch for estimates of a similar annual income that would be considered “worry free” for today, 2025.
Here, CNBC, March 2025, says that a SINGLE adult earning $86-88k, could live comfortably while meet the 50/30/20 rule of thumb, in 10 “affordable cities”.
(Ie not a multi income household.)
If one assumes that meeting the 50/30/20 rule of thumb is equivalent to “worry free”, then it provides a similar piece of information?
{. The personal finance website used data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator to estimate basic living costs for each city, then applied those costs to the commonly used 50/30/20 budget to determine how much a resident would need to earn to live there.
The 50/30/20 budget prescribes putting 50% of your income toward your needs, 30% toward wants and 20% toward savings and debt repayment. }
Here in this next article, CNBC, June 2025, offers estimates of the annual income a single adult would need in order to meet the 50/30/20 rule of thumb in each state.
The needed annual income for a single adult ranges from $82k in West Virginia to $125k in Hawaii.
An eyeballed estimate suggests the average is about $95k.
Texas estimate is $91k.
I live in TX, near Austin. I could “worry free” meet the 50/30/20 rule, on an annual income of $91k.
Assume 25% overall taxes. 22,750.
91k-22.75k= $68,250 after tax.
50% = 34,125. /12= 2843/month
30% = 20,475. /12= 1706l/month
20% = 13,650.
{. 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.
SmartAsset defines “comfortable” as earning enough to follow the 50/30/20 budget method, which recommends…}
The median annual single income wage is 20k less than the “worry free” annual income for the cheapest state.
Perhaps this helps explain why the polls say lots of people feel financially stressed?
ralph