How much income is enough?

I think there was a study done about this. Obviously it greatly varies depending on where you live. Yep found it

Money can buy happiness, but only to a point

75k per adult 25 per child

a_skeleton_06 said:

I'm convinced that it's never enough and I was happiest when I had 13 dollars to my name. We currently make 160k together (LA, so perhaps part of the issue) and it feels like sometimes we can't get ahead.

Click to expand...

160k in LA actually doesn't sound like very much. I mean you're not banging rocks together or living week to week, but I doubt you live close to the affluent part of town either. 160k wouldn't really buy into the affluent parts of Raleigh. And we ain't high falutin.

Unless you mean the state and not the city.

Personally I put the number at 50-60k. But i'm a cheap old fuck. 75k really does sound good.

Man, it varies so much from place to place. You can get a substantial, nice, four bedroom home on a two acre lot here for under 200K$. You don't need to be making all that much to have a big home, and food costs are also low.

I was going to post the article that someone up top already.

I think the question boils down to "How much do you need to not stress about money anymore?" If your an unhappy person, lotsa money not going to help that. If your a happy person, but making minimum wage, some extra income will help.

I tend to find that the "no longer stress" income kicks in around 60-100k a year, depending on family size, etc. As a 3 person family in a normal cost of living area, i can tell you that I don't see much of a difference between 100k and 200k personally. With more money I can retire early, buy a corvette or a second house,etc, but that is all just filler for a happy person. I still gotta put my pants on and go to work, get shit on by my boss etc, only now the numbers in my bank account are slightly larger.


You can throw that out the door for NYC, Boston, D.C. San Fran, etc. For those cities/areas I would double or triple it.

Too many variables. Cost of living. What kind of lifestyle you have and want to maintain, etc.

Soygen said:

300k should be comfortable literally anywhere in this country. Honestly, if you don't have kids, half that would comfortable anywhere in this country. If you don't think it is, you have don't have a good concept of what it's like to "not be comfortable".

Click to expand...

LOL @ 300k, I can literally throw a rock half a mile and hit a trailer that has 2 million in meth inside

Really impossible question to answer because people cant agree on what standard of living is required, and legitimate costs of living vary widely depending on region.

Waste your money buying new or 1-2 year old cars? Youre gonna need more. Want to spend college tuition level money sending your kid to private preschools instead of public school? Youre gonna spend more. etc. Want to live in an urban shithole somewhere like San Francisco or New York? Youre gonna pay mor for that privilege too.

Also, there is no reason a second adult should double it; almost all of your expenses are shared. Adding a child adds a small fraction. They dont eat that much. The marginal costs are small, a few thousand per year extra.

3 kids 2 adults here on 80 k and we are comfortable. No question of making ends meet.