SmartAsset<\/a> released a new study that found the salary needed to live comfortably in top cities across the United States in 2026. There are three factors it used to designate \u201cliving comfortably\u201d based on your salary \u2014 the 50\/30\/20 rule. Under this rule, 50% of your post-tax income goes to needs, 30% goes to wants, and 20% goes to the future.<\/p>\nAnd it\u2019s no surprise that New York City made the top of the list with the highest yearly income needed to live comfortably. A single adult needs to earn $158,954 to live comfortably in New York City, according to SmartAsset\u2019s study.<\/p>\n
The salary needed for a working family of four in New York City is $337,875. The median household income is $81,875 in New York City, according to the study.<\/p>\n
Here are the top 10 cities with the highest yearly salaries needed for individuals to live comfortably, according to the study.<\/p>\n
10 – Oakland, California (tie): $134,410<\/p>\n
10 – Fremont, California (tie): $134,410<\/p>\n
9 – San Francisco, California: $134,950<\/p>\n
7 – Chula Vista, California (tie): $136,781<\/p>\n
7 – San Diego, California (tie): $136,781<\/p>\n
6 – Boston, Massachusetts: $139,776<\/p>\n
3 – Santa Ana, California (tie): $151,965<\/p>\n
3 – Anaheim, California (tie): $151,965<\/p>\n
3 – Irvine, California (tie): $151,965<\/p>\n
2 – San Jose, California: $158,080<\/p>\n
1 – New York City: $158,954<\/p>\n
Here are the top 10 cities with the lowest yearly salaries for individuals to live comfortably, according to the study.<\/p>\n
10 – Fort Wayne, Indiana: $88,982<\/p>\n
9 – Tucson, Arizona: $88,899<\/p>\n
8 – Winston-Salem, North Carolina: $88,442<\/p>\n
7 – Tulsa, Oklahoma: $88,317<\/p>\n
6 – Louisville, Kentucky: $88,234<\/p>\n
5 – Baltimore, Maryland: $87,485<\/p>\n
4 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: $86,861<\/p>\n
3 – Memphis, Tennessee: $86,320<\/p>\n
2 – New Orleans, Louisiana: $84,406<\/p>\n
1 – San Antonio, Texas: $83,242<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 If you want to live in New York City without worrying about finances, you\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-178109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}