Business

A new study says how much you need to make to live ‘comfortably’ in Boston. It’s a lot.

Single adults might need to rake in more than $100K to "live comfortably," this new study shows.

By Molly Farrar

March 20, 2024

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Email
• 87

With skyrocketing housing prices, Boston’s position as one of the most expensive cities in the United States is no surprise. But a new study says single Bostonians have to make upwards of $100,000 a year to live comfortably in the city.

The study puts Boston as the fifth-most expensive city to live comfortably, after New York City, San Jose, Irvine, and Santa Ana, Calif.

A single adult needs to make about $60 an hour or $124,966 a year, according to the study put out by SmartAsset. Two working adults with two children need to pull in $319,738 a year. These salaries are all pre-tax.

“Living comfortably,” however, could mean a lot of different things. Maybe Bostonians living comfortably steal up to Vermont for a yearly ski trip, while others may just have a taste for fine dining. SmartAsset, a financial technology company, explained their metric with a “50/30/20” budget.

For “sustainable comfort,” SmartAsset said, a salary should be split with 50% going towards needs like housing, groceries, and transportation. Then, 30% goes towards “wants” like hobbies and entertainment. The remaining 20% goes to paying debt, saving, or investing.

The study used the MIT Living Wage calculator as a baseline. According to the calculator, the living wage in Boston is about $30, or double the minimum wage in Massachusetts. The study then doubled that to identify how much being “comfortable” costs in Boston.

Besides New York, Boston, and Seattle, the rest of the top 10 most expensive cities were all in California. Cities with the lowest salaries to live comfortably were Houston, El Paso, and Lubbock, Texas.