What do you consider a ‘good’ salary?

39 comments

1. “Good” to me means comfortably successful for your area. Without putting a specific amount on it, I’d consider a salary relatively good for its area when it takes no more than 2-3 times your annual salary to pay for purchasing a good, reasonably priced home and no more than 3-5 times your annual salary for a more upper end area expectation home. [Mansions and millionaires excluded from consideration here.]

2. Are you looking for a number? There are so many variables. A good salary allows you to like the place you live, buy groceries without adding it up before checkout and putting bills on auto pay.

3. I live in a HCOL area and a good salary would be around $150k, anywhere under $100k, then you’re not that comfortable, but can still live.

4. It really depends on area and cost of living. Having plenty to save and spend after bills is a factor. Maybe 150-200k in a big city and 90-100k in a lower cost.

5. $180k plus decent benefits

6. One where you’re actually able to save some of your paycheck

7. There’s so many factors to consider but “good” for *me* was $60kish with a husband who makes about the same and no kids. So $120k combined, MCOL area. 

   I didn’t feel comfortable having a child until I made $75k, which is coming up in August and we’ll start trying for a baby this fall. So “good” with a child starts at $75k, $130k combined.

8. It used to be like 75k, now I would say maybe 100k+ m, as I want to be able to do a few things. 1. Afford all of my monthly bills, 2. Be able to save a decent amount while also having enough to put emergency money away, 3. The ability to travel, see concerts, etc a few times a year, and 4. Be able to afford nights out with the girls a few times a month

9. It’s all relative to what your ideal living situation, your career stage, what stage of life you are in/hoping to achieve soon, and what incomes in your region are generally like.

   For me a salary large enough to pay for a 1bed 600sqft apartment a 15 minute walk from work, where no more than 30% of my pretax income is spent on housing would be a “good salary”. I currently do not make a good salary.

   If i’m making a generic statement about my peers in our mid to late twenties, i’d say any salary in the 75th percentile for the area. For my area, that’s ~60k for people between 25-29. Id consider anything in the 90th or above percentile to be a great salary, which for my cohort is 82k. Based on this definition, I’m on the higher side of good.

10. Numbers are hard for me so I’ll say: my QoL increased dramatically when I started making $1500/week in NYC. My life literally changed when I joined a union and started making $3,000 a week.

11. -You can pay for your groceries comfortably. You probably have 2-3 items on your grocery list where you could buy generic but you can afford to splurge on these specific items.

    -Every once in awhile you can afford a good meal whether it’s homemade or to eat out. (Like maybe once or twice a month)

    -You can pay your rent/mortgage(if you have one) on time without needing to go into any form of debt.

    -You don’t need a side hustle.

    -You have something for savings after bills and basic needs are paid.

    -You have time and can afford a hobby in general.

12. Depends on where you’re located.

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14. Depends on cost of living. Back in 2019, I was told that a “good” salary for a single adult was 60k, someone could live semi comfortably with that income. I would say with inflation, 60k is probably not nearly enough in a HCOL area.

    I live near Boston and everyone I know who lives in Boston says you have to make 100k to live a comfortable life here. Boston is HCOL so I believe it.

15. A salary you can live comfortably on. Sadly, in my state, that’s a salary of over 60k a year

16. I’m a single 30f and I make $68k in a fairly hcol city. Paying for rent, auto, insurance, and utilities for one is hard. I would feel quite comfortable with my current situation at about 90k. This is a calculation that would allow me to also save and contribute to retirement at the rates I would like.

    I’m now JUUUUUUUST getting by. Rent/utilities/car/insurance is about $2300/month. It leaves me with about $1000 a month for everything else. I would have to make $1000 more/month to feel comfortable living and also feeling like I’m paying myself future wise.

17. I live in low cost-of-living area. I make a $35,000 a year and my husband makes around 60,000.
    So it’s about $95,000 a year together.

    I find it pretty comfortable. we don’t have a car payment, our rent is reasonably cheap for three bedroom house, and even though food is pretty expensive, we get most of our non-perishables delivered from Walmart, and we do a big meat order once a year. That saves us a lot of money.

    We’re not living paycheque to paycheque. that’s big for us because in the 15 years we’ve been together, only the last two we’ve been able to put away money every month.

18. In the UK? Anything less than £30k is basically slavery in more expensive areas. I don’t care what the minimum/living wage says.

19. 120k + good benefits

20. There’s no one-size-fits-all. It depends on where you live, your situation, and your goals. For me personally, we live in a VHCOL area so a good salary covers mortgage, insurance, any emergencies, utilities, food, etc, plus also allows us to travel occasionally as well as aggressively save and invest so we can retire early.

21. 125k single income, no kids, pretty happy

22. In my high but not super high COL area, I felt like we did pretty well once our combined income hit $100k a year. With that kind of money, as 2 adults with no kids, we could save for and then buy a small house, continue to save, not have to worry about how much we were spending at the grocery store, eat out once a week and do an annual vacation of some sort plus a few other fun things in a year. We would probably have to be at $125-150k/year to get there now. Our current HHI is more like $250k now and we do about the same except the vacations are a little nicer and more frequent. But we are mostly saving for big house repairs now.

23. When im earning over 100k.

    Currently on….less.

24. Living in London, UK, and having a student loan a good salary to me is £90,000 and comfortable is £150,000

    My classification:
    Decent – means you can pay for the day to day living expenses and live in a 1 bedroom flat alone. You don’t have an option to save. To me, that’s £55,000

    Good – you can afford to live alone and pay market rate rent. You can only save a few hundred pounds a month.
    £90,000

    Comfortable – You can live in most places in London and afford a 2 or 3 bedroom home. You can take several holidays a year and save at least £500 a month. You don’t have to worry about budgeting.

25. As someone who lives in Toronto, for me, a good salary is at least $90K for someone living alone. Combined income with a potential partner, I ideally want him to make a little more, so close to $200K HHI. This is factoring wanting to buy a home and having a family as this is my future goal. So tbh, $250K I’d feel more comfortable.

    I’m moving to London, UK soon. So in my head, a good salary is the equivalent of the above but in pounds, especially with the HCOL. But I am so bummed to find out salaries in general over there are so low. I don’t even know how I would afford to have a family under £100K HHI in London if I end up settling there…

26. 130K+ is good buying power

27. It depends on the cost of living of where you live. I live in a low cost of living area where a single person with salary of 60,000 per year can live a middle class comfortable lifestyle. A couple making 120,000 per year can live very comfortably.

28. My list for what makes up for a good salary:
    – autopay my bills & rent (mortgage) without worry
    – can use my credit cards to my advantage for points & perks while still being able to pay them
    – good health, dental, vision insurance
    – can afford a hobby/ies
    – can buy what I need or want when I want it such as make up & self care, movie dates, gifts for family, activities or a fun class
    – can have money saved for a rainy day
    – car payment and/ or maintenance is up to date
    – can buy the groceries I want or need without calculating and planning extensively; I don’t feel pained if I don’t have my coupon or I miss a good deal
    – I’m not mentally calculating what I have every day and every time I have to pay for something.

    Pre-Covid & pre-children, I was making 65k in Southern California. I was a student renting a room for $700 a month, had a low car payment & phone bill, a few paid off credit cards, and 10k saved. It was a good life while it lasted. I make 40k now with a 4 year old, we’re still in SoCal, but we live in an apartment with 1 roommate ($800 rent). I don’t qualify for food stamps or any benefits. My tax return saved me this year so far. Kid is expensive, and everything costs so much more than it did 5 years ago.

29. Where I live $75k and up is comfortable

30. High cost of living? $150k+ for a household.

31. I live in Florida (USA). To get an apartment here you need to be making $65-$85. If you want to buy a house it will cost you about $95-$125 / year. That is the bare minimum.

32. At least 100k

33. Decent is 80-110k
    good I would is 120k+ I live in a hcol area

34. Good salary means all your day to day needs are met (including therapy and dental and if you have an unexpected medical condition pop up a root canal shouldn’t cause you to miss rent), you can afford to go on vacation out of state 1-2 times per year, you can leave the country every 5 years, and you can eventually own a home and pay it off before retirement. Speaking of retirement, you should be able to afford to save enough to retire (1.5 mil min at age of retirement).

35. $160-200k cuz the taxes you pay are outrageous.

    I’d rather be a 1099 or w9 (for stability) and open and LLC and bet on myself so I have the chance to make a lot more money than what these companies want to pay.

    People that are on 1099 are doing better making less than people making 60k on a W9.

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37. I make $125k in LCOL to MCOL and feel very comfortable. But I also don’t have kids.

38. After taxes, my version of a “good” salary is to take home $200k. Whether that’s straight salary or includes commission or some other income source.

    I also have complicated medical conditions that are insanely expensive. No kids. No spouse. Own my home but live in a different state so I can make the kind of money it takes to pay for everything comfortably.

39. I don’t have a specific number, but I would say enough to pay for housing bills, food, clothes and life essentials, but also be able to save up money for later investments or holidays/ special events etc. When you know you could easily provide for a child or two.