{"id":329137,"date":"2026-08-25T10:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329137\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:46:07","slug":"news-12-long-island-195","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329137\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Long Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Long Island families need more than $323,000 a year in Nassau County and nearly $329,000 in Suffolk County to live comfortably, according to a new<a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/smartasset.com\/data-studies\/heres-the-salary-it-takes-to-live-comfortably-in-each-u-s-state-in-2026?fbclid=IwRlRTSATyb1xwZG9mBWZkaWQWUMxXq-D0sdhNjmH8Z1gzdRl7RGP6Y2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR4WdTPptgifQ8OkyTSDeKZAisMcFd5bdu_3gzjdZ9pO5vw5wjIKQjWGs1Gp-A_aem_yAYJY39Hf6SQuQaLLoRUhA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> SmartAsset report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">What does it mean to live comfortably?<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not wealthy, but it&#8217;s also earning more than you need to just get by.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">That&#8217;s how analysts at SmartAsset define comfortable living. The consumer financial website recently released a report detailing how much income is needed to live comfortably in New York, one of the country&#8217;s most expensive states.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;New York State as a whole is, as most people probably are not surprised to hear, one of the most expensive states in the country to live,&#8221; said Toby Nelson.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">According to the report, a single New Yorker without children needs to earn more than $124,000 a year to live comfortably. For a family of four, that number rises to more than $291,000 annually.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;New York actually saw the number two increase among all states year over year,&#8221; Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The financial picture is even more challenging on Long Island. Nelson said a single adult needs an income of nearly $129,000 a year in Nassau County and more than $131,000 a year in Suffolk County to live comfortably.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">For a family of four, the income needed climbs to more than $323,000 in Nassau County and nearly $329,000 in Suffolk County.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;At first glance it could be sticker shock, but it is not surprising to me at all,&#8221; said Long Island Association Interim CEO Stacey Sikes.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Sikes said the findings reflect the affordability challenges facing residents across Nassau and Suffolk counties.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;From property taxes, income tax, sales tax, utility costs, housing costs, transportation, childcare, groceries, the list goes on and on,&#8221; Sikes said.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">She added that there is no single solution to the affordability crisis and that addressing it will require work from both the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">In the meantime, Nelson said residents should focus on strengthening their personal finances by maintaining an adequate emergency fund, saving for retirement and consulting a financial expert.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">As for the simplest answer to the problem?<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">&#8220;Make more money, but that&#8217;s not really a very satisfying answer for most people, and is easier said than done,&#8221; Nelson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Island families need more than $323,000 a year in Nassau County and nearly $329,000 in Suffolk County&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-329137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329137","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=329137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}