There\u2019s an uncomfortably high income New Yorkers need in order to live comfortably, according to disconcerting new data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The privilege of calling the Big Apple and its surrounding neighborhoods \u201chome\u201d doesn\u2019t come cheap, reveals an August report<\/a>, crowning New York and New Jersey in the top five most expensive states for living comfortably.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trailing closely behind Hawaii, Massachusetts and California, the Empire State secured the fourth place position on the roster, requiring $124,342 and $291,533 as the minimum amounts singletons and families of four must earn in order to survive, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n New Yorkers, both singles and couples, must earn hefty six-figure salaries in order to keep their heads above water, according to a new study. Dexon Dee \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n New Jersey took the fifth place slot, commanding a yearly $113,776 from its singles, and a whopping $295,110 from couples with at least two kiddos, according to the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs housing, grocery, transportation and other essential costs pressure household budgets, earning a six-figure salary no longer guarantees financial comfort in much of the US,\u201d researchers for SmartAsset, a financial technology company, warn in the trending findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n To determine how much dough breadwinners have to roll in just to make it in each of the 50 states, the investigators used\u00a0MIT\u2019s 2026 Living Wage Calculator<\/a>. It\u2019s a virtual tool that determines the salary a full-time worker needs to afford basic needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Analysts for SmartAsset then adjusted each amount\u00a0using the 50\/30\/20 finance rule<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a budgeting method that divides a net income into three categories: 50% of spending for necessities, 30% for leisure, and 20% for savings.\u00a0<\/p>\n The experts found that married New Yorkers with kids must earn well over $200,000 each year in order to afford housing, utilities, fun and retirement. Monkey Business \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n The resulting estimate represents the annual, pre-tax income needed to live comfortably in each state.\u00a0<\/p>\n The high demand on residents in and around Gotham doesn\u2019t come as an eye-popping shock amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with\u00a0rents exceeding $6,600<\/a>,\u00a0food costs surging<\/a>\u00a0and local gas stations challenging customers to\u00a0dance for fuel discounts<\/a>. It\u2019s all contributing evidence to the city\u2019s recent rank as the\u00a0\u201cworst place\u201d to be single.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Singles in NYC and beyond are forced to take home tons of money each year in order to survive living alone, according to the data. Alessandra Sawick \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n In the past year, the income criteria for a solo New Yorker increased by 8.4% \u2014 the second highest uptick nationwide \u2014 while the number for unattached New Jerseyans jumped up 4.4%, per the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only six states, Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas, enjoyed a decline in the minimum amount needed for an unmarried guy or gal since 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s an uncomfortably high income New Yorkers need in order to live comfortably, according to disconcerting new data.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6105,16170,3415,232,6495,237,1066,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,63,16999,13142,9864],"class_list":["post-323283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-families","tag-income","tag-jobs","tag-lifestyle","tag-marriage","tag-money","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nyc","tag-salaries","tag-singles","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323283","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=323283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}