Have you ever thought about how much money you'd have to earn to live "comfortably"? Of course that figure could vary widely across the country due to cost of living in different places.
Luckily for you and I our friends over at Go BankingRates have already done the hard work for us. They took a look at the 50 biggest cities in the U.S. and came up with the income that you would need to make to live comfortably at each city.
The website used the 50-30-20 budgeting rule, for example ― in which 50 percent of income covers necessities, 30 percent is for discretionary items and 20 percent is saved. If you're wondering how much you need to live comfortably in Virginia Beach, according to the website,
"Virginia Beach, Va.: $50,929
- Income needed: $50,929
- 50 percent for necessities: $25,465
- 30 percent for discretionary spending: $15,279
- 20 percent for savings: $10,186
Low costs of living make it easy to live on Virginia Beach’s median income of $67,001. This amount is $16,072 more than what is needed to live comfortably ― the equivalent of an extra $1,340 a month ― which is the biggest surplus of any major U.S. city in this study."
If you want to check out the full list and possibly figure out where your next home will be you can check it out here.