What is a comfortable living?

Question

In the United States, what would be a comfortable yearly income (i.e. $40, 000 a year, $55, 000 a year, etc.) for a single person? What I mean by comfortable is a small house/apartment living a fairly simple life.

Now, the same question but instead of the United States, what would be a comfortable living in a modern European country (i.e. Iceland, France, Luxembourg, etc.). Use American dollars.

I'd want to live in a fairly large city

Answer 1

This is too much dependant upon any given individual's opinion, and definition of "comfort. It's also a relative condition, which can vary depending on what that person has already become accustomed to in life. By some people's definitions, for example, I am considered comfortable, secure and even wealthy. But I also have a lot of expenses, and I have to count my pennies just as much as the next person.

On the other side of the coin, I have friends who, compared to me, are extreeeeeemly comfortable, and they would probably find my standard of living unbearable lol. So you just can't make the kind of comparisons that you are asking for because one person's "comfort zone" is another person's "poverty line".

Now, you are personally defining "comfortable" as a small house/apartment, living a fairly simple life. But gee, exactly what do YOU consider simple? I know somebody who considers he lives a "very simple life" and in fact has used that exact phrase. LOL he has a very simple hobby - golf - but he belongs to an exclusive golf club, so that costs more than a few pennies. He takes a very simple foreign destination vacation every year. He lives these days in what he considers a "smallish house" because it's about half the size of the gigantic one he sold after the costs of upkeep, and home insurance had become staggering. He calls it a "small residence", but it's still about half again the size of mine, and this house is pretty large compared to some others in the immediate area. But I don't find it large at all - a little on the cramped side, in fact.

So you see what I'm saying. From one person to another to another, when you talk about a lifestyle, or a comfort zone, and use words like "size" "simplicity" "comfortable" you can't formulate a "standard" because it's based on individual experiences, which are so vastly different. The only definitions that have any meaning to you are the ones YOU can relate to from your own experience.

By the way... a single person living on $50 thousand a year in the U.S. would probably get by pretty nicely. But nothing stands still, does it? How long is that person going to be bringing in that 50 grand, and what about the future? You know what they say, the only two things you can rely on for certain are death and taxes. A lot of people were doing reasonably well for example till out of a clear blue sky gasolene shot up like the mercury in a thermometer on a summer afternoon. Look what the price of fuel has done not just to people's travelling expenses but the costs of merchandise that has to be transported across country or by air. The value of money drops when something like that causes a chain reaction and a whole lot of things we have to have, go up in price. Lot of people who, two years ago would have definitely considered themselves in your "comfortable class" are now in bankruptsy because they took oversized mortgages on oversized homes, and the bottom dropped out of the housing market.

So what price your 40 to 55 thousand income, by the end of this decade even? Who can say for sure? And you are asking people to try and evaluate "comfortable living" in a bunch of foreign countries of which they know nothing? lol. I can reach up into the night sky and fetch you down the moon easier than I could do that.

Answer 2

The problem to answering this question is that what is considered comfortable to one may not be comfortable to another.

For a homesteader comfortable and having plenty could be as low as $10,000 a year or less. I have known people who prided themselves for being able to live comfortably on a yearly income of $200!

To a person living in the city might think $100,000 a year, isn't enough.

Answer 3

It all depends on your needs, wants and financial situation. It also depends on where you are living. In my area, I can survive on $30,000 a year. It also depends on how wise a person is with his money. If a person has a need to go shopping every time they have cash in his pockets, they may need a higher income to live comfortably.

Answer 4

Depends on geography. Where in the US do you want to live? You can live comfortably on 10k a year in the backwoods of Kentucky. 50k a year would be tough in downtown New York. I'm single, make 40k and think I'm doing great. I own a house, three cars, ATV, snowmobile, boat, etc. I travel and do what I please.

Answer 5

yea id say 50,000 in us

maybe 30,000 in europe depending on the country,.......u have to remember how big the US is and all the vacant land we have

Answer 6

Having sufficient for your needs.

Answer 7

DON'T GO TO AMERICA!

erm.
i'd miss you.
you'd be doing all this cool stuff.
w/o meh.

Answer 8

65,000 a year at least