98 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 May \ parent \ on: The Income a Family Needs to Live Comfortably in Every U.S. State econ
Yeah, those numbers match my intuition much better.
There are a lot of different things going on:
One of which is that people don't have homothetic preferences, meaning we don't need as large a share of discretionary spending as our budgets increase.
Another is that many people have benefits through their jobs that provide savings and supplement other costs, so the first graph is doing some double counting.
Yeah great points. This is why I say do your own research using your existing expenses and preferences. I think these tools are good for narrowing it down but DO NOT take them as fact. Much better to compare county A in state A vs county B in state B. Many things can be broken down at the state level but don't overlook the local differences. And this isn't only money. Governments at all levels vary as well.
reply
Since the data in the first graph represents average values for the entire state, it is important to read the data with caution. We can sometimes be misled. What would be the average allocation for a 4-person American family? 80/10/10?
reply
That’s probably fine for people right on the edge of living comfortably.
reply
What seems clear to me is that the concept of comfortable is very subjective. I also live well without 30% discretionary spending. It is possible to live well without most of that part of the budget, or to allocate more to savings.
reply