Oakside Realty

$106,745. That's roughly the average income a single person needs nationally just to cover the basics, save a little, and not feel broke every month.

This comes from SmartAsset's 2026 study using the MIT Living Wage Calculator. They define "comfortable" using the 50/30/20 rule.

50% of your income toward necessities like housing, food, and transportation. 30% toward discretionary spending. 20% toward long-term savings and debt repayment.

That's not luxury. That's not extravagance. That's just a sustainable budget.

And the range across the country is wild.

New York tops the list at $158,954. San Jose follows at $158,080. Meanwhile San Antonio sits at the bottom at $83,242, and New Orleans isn't far behind at $84,406.

That's a $75,000 swing depending entirely on which zip code you live in.

For comparison, the median individual wage in America was just under $62,000 last year.

That means the typical single American earner is sitting roughly $45,000 short of what it actually takes to live comfortably by this standard.

That gap is the whole story right there.

It explains why so many people feel like they're doing everything right and still falling behind. It explains the credit card balances climbing across every generation. It explains why homeownership keeps slipping further out of reach.

"Comfortable" isn't what it used to be. The bar moved. Most paychecks didn't move with it.