2025 Salary Guide: How Much You Need to Live Comfortably in Each U.S. State

As the cost of living continues to rise and affects essential budget items, individuals and families increasingly require higher incomes to maintain a comfortable lifestyle over the long term.

This means having enough to cover not just essentials like housing, food, transportation, and healthcare, but also to enjoy hobbies, take vacations, save for retirement, fund education, and handle unexpected expenses.

One common way to estimate the income needed to cover essential expenses is the 50/30/20 budget rule. According to this guideline, 50% of income should go toward necessities, 30% toward discretionary spending, and 20% toward savings or debt repayment.

Based on this framework, the average individual in the U.S. would need to earn approximately $5,844 more than they did last year to maintain a comfortable and sustainable budget. For a working family of four, that increase rises to about $9,360.

With this in mind, the researchers conducted a study to determine the salary required to live comfortably in each state—factoring in pre-tax income needed for basic necessities, long-term savings, and a bit of discretionary spending—and how that amount has changed over time.

Hawaii ranks as the most expensive state for a single adult to live comfortably, requiring an annual salary of $124,467 to cover essentials, discretionary spending, long-term savings, and income taxes. This marks a 9.48% increase from the previous year, when the estimated income for the same standard of living was $113,693.

Living comfortably in Massachusetts now requires a household income of over $300,000, making it the most expensive state in the U.S. for working families. A family of four—two adults and two children—needs an estimated $313,747 annually to cover both short-term and long-term expenses. For a single adult, the cost of living comfortably is also steep, with an estimated required income of $120,141 this year—the second highest in the country after Hawaii.

In West Virginia, adults need just $80,829 annually to live comfortably—the lowest amount in the nation. Single individuals there require the least income of any state, holding the same position as last year when the figure was $78,790. For families, however, Mississippi takes the lead for affordability, with a two-earner household needing only $186,618 in 2025 to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Families in Vermont and New Jersey may be feeling increased financial pressure. In Vermont, the household income required for a family to live comfortably jumped by 15.48% in just one year, reaching $286,790—the highest increase in the nation. New Jersey wasn’t far behind, with a 12.55% rise, bringing the necessary income to $282,714.

Montana experienced the sharpest rise in the income required for a comfortable lifestyle, with the amount needed for a single adult increasing by 9.57% to $92,851. Families saw a similarly steep climb, with the necessary income rising 11.14% to $234,957 — the third-highest increase across all states in the study.