You Need to Make How Much to Live Comfortably in Colorado?

Most of us dream about being rich enough to never have to step foot into a place of employment again. Hopes and dreams of being able to travel anywhere you want and buy whatever your heart desires are usually the driving factor of purchasing lottery tickets.

On the other hand, all of us just want to live comfortably and not have to worry about bills or an unplanned emergency derailing our entire lives financially. A lot of us have been there at one time or another where a breakdown of a vehicle can set us backs weeks, if not months, simply because the financial padding isn't there. I've been there, it sucks.

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How much do I need to make an hour to live comfortably in Colorado?

The term "living comfortably" is going to vary from one household to another. However, the general idea of comfortable living is broken down by the 50-30-20 Rule. This rule is the basic outline of where your salary ends up.

• 50 percent goes to needs such as rent/mortgage, car payment, utilities, etc.
• 30 percent goes to wants that could include dining out, a weekend vacation, and so on.
• 20 percent goes to savings. This could include retirement, saving towards a downpayment on a home, and more.

According to Simple Most, using this 50/30/20 rule, you would need to make quite a bit of money to live comfortably in the state of Colorado. While only three cities were ranked on the list in the state, we can use these three cities as a general outline of what to expect in Colorado.

Minimum wage in Colorado

Currently, the minimum wage in the state of Colorado is $14.42. It is no surprise that the state's minimum wage is nowhere close to the hourly rate to live comfortably in the state of Colorado.

Simple Most says that the wage needed for a single adult to live comfortably in the city of Denver is over three and a half times that of the state's minimum wage at $51.24 per hour. With an hourly wage such as this, you would need an average of $95,805 annual salary to live in the Mile High City. This amount climbs even higher when you factor in another working spouse with two children. Two working adults with two children would need to make approximately $272,000 per year to attain comfortable living in Denver, Colorado.

The cheapest city to live comfortably on Simple Most's list in Colorado is still pretty steep when it comes to salary requirements. A single adult in Colorado Springs, Colorado, would need to make $46.06 per hour and an annual salary of $95,000 to live comfortably in the city. The total salary for two working adults with two children is $253,000.

I think it goes without saying, that a lot of us do not even come close to making it into the living comfortably threshold.