Doesn't the picture next to it show the cost for a family?

Agreed, it would be more accurate to show the median because of these outliers

Looks like these numbers came from a report by SmartAsset, which took it's numbers from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Here's a link to their methodology:

https://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/methodology

Relevant definitions:

At its simplest, a living wage is what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.

There are eight basic needs – food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, civic engagement, broadband, and other necessities – that make up the cost components of the living wage, with an additional cost associated with income and payroll taxes.

EDIT: It looks like the SmartAsset report used their 50/30/20 rule to estimate their "comfortable" living wage. 50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% paying down debts. The MIT calculator bundles some needs and wants together, so it appears that SmartAsset teased out the expenses they categorize as "needs," e.g., food, housing, and transportation, and then they doubled it.

You can eat and sleep inside (something)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comfort

You might want to get a device that connects to the interwebs and has a 'searching engine.' I've been using AskJeeves for years and haven't had a problem yet.

How so? The graphic indicates you'll live comfortably with that income, not starve.

We hit a point where it was a nice landmark and then when the moment passed we all got locked in on it. It’s not as fun to say the modern equivalent is some messy number far above it so we just got stuck instead.

Agree they list the rule - but like a mean vs median thing, are crazy cities like NYC or LA skewing the average?

We make about half the bottom-right picture, but I AM at about the 50/30/20 balance. Yes, worthless anecdote, but still makes $240k seem a tad high for a median.

I'll have to take a look at my spending and see where my splits really are. To the spreadsheet!

im like at least 3% sure the subtext is 503020 does not reflect the reality of if you can manage 100, closer to the actual median around 45k, then ==> follows some version of that is enough.,,.

Yeah, their definition of “comfort” seems to be a solidly middle class experience of going to Disney world and…other middle class stuff? I live alone in nyc and I’m plenty comfortable, but I’m not making 140k.

Two cohabiting adults get some economy of scale benefit, but then children add the entire childcare category to the expenses. Housing and Transportation costs, the largest fraction of the budget, both see only marginal increases with each additional family member.

All costs took the average for the region or metro area. It really does cost $96,000 on average to live in America.

The source is a SmartAsset report that pulled data from the MIT Living Wage calculator. It takes the average regional costs for housing, transportation, taxes, etc, and then SmartAsset used a 50/30/20 rule to estimate comfortable living wages from basic needs expenses.

The word "comfortably" is doing a lot of work here. Obviously plenty of people raise a family on less.

You may want to check your math?

96k : $46/hr

=T every indication is that living comfortably is well beyond the means of most people, and personally, with the definition laid out and used in this article, many agree it is a good measure,,.......... and most would agree that most (more than 50%) of people are living well below it.