Make California Post a Preferred Source A six-figure salary doesn’t buy what it used to — especially in California.
A single adult living in the Golden State now needs to earn an eye-watering $126,797 a year before taxes to live “comfortably,” according to a new report from financial planning site SmartAsset.
That puts singletons who are bringing in an even $100,000 roughly $27,000 short of financial ease — squeezed between high rents, steep gas prices, sky-high state taxes, and seemingly persistent inflation.
A single adult living in the Golden State now needs to earn an eye-watering $126,797 a year before taxes to live “comfortably,” according to a new report. Getty Images And the bar is moving rapidly. The amount Californians need to rake in jumped 6.1% in just one year, marking the fourth largest increase of any state in the country.
Only Montana, where the required salary surged 8.6%, New York, up 8.4%, and Maine, up 6.5%, saw a steeper year-over-year increase.
The findings cemented California as the third most expensive state in the nation for single residents, out priced only by Hawaii — where comfortable hovers around $129,002 a year — and Massachusetts at $127,213.
SmartAsset’s researchers didn’t define “comfortable” as private chefs and weekend trips to Napa.
The study drew basic cost of living data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator — the bare minimum required to cover rent, utilities, food, healthcare and transportation — and applied the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule.
The study drew basic cost of living data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Getty Images Under the formula, 50% of after-tax income is earmarked for necessities such as housing, food and utilities, 30% can go towards wants and discretionary spending, and 20% to put in savings or paying down loans and debt.
If single life in California looks steep, raising a family requires corporate exec level income. For a household with two working adults and two children, the annual income needed to live comfortably in California has ballooned to $302,682.
On the other end of the spectrum, West Virginia ranks as the country’s most affordable state for single earners, where living comfortably requires $81,245.
For families, Mississippi demands the least, sitting at $187,533.
While California saw its comfort threshold shoot higher, residents of six states actually saw theirs fall.
The amount required for a single adult declined in Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas compared with 2025.
The statewide numbers can also mask just how punishing California’s priciest cities have become.
A separate Smart Asset analysis released earlier this year found that a single person in San Jose needed $158,080 to live comfortable, while residents of Orange County cities like Irvine, Anaheim and Santa Ana needed $151,965.
For families, the Bay Area was in a league of its own: SmartAsset estimated a family of four needed a combined $407,597 in San Francisco to cover needs, wants and savings.
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