San Francisco has the highest cost of living, while St. Louis is the most affordable city

The San Francisco metro area has the highest cost of living in the United States, requiring an after-tax salary of $84,000 to live comfortably – compared to a low of $57,000 in St. Louis.

A study of the country’s 25 largest metropolitan areas shows that the top ten most expensive places to live are on the east or west coast.

The area with the lowest cost of living is Greater St. Louis, which spans Missouri and Illinois. That is closely followed by the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metro area of ​​Michigan, where a salary of $58,358 is needed for a comfortable living.

At the other end of the scale, New York, unsurprisingly, was in the top five, along with the metropolitan area that includes Boston and Cambridge in the affluent state of Massachusetts.

Researchers at SmartAsset, who conducted the study, based the numbers on the 50/30/20 rule that allocates 50% of a paycheck to essential expenses, 30% to “wants,” and 20% to savings. They used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to calculate the basic cost of living for a single person with no children.

The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area is the most expensive in the US

The area with the lowest cost of living is Greater St. Louis, which spans Missouri and Illinois

Financial planner Susannah Snider said, “A budget is the foundation of many people’s financial plans. And it’s especially essential to understand and track your expenses when the cost of everyday items rises.

“If you can stick to a 50/30/20 budget, you’ll have enough to fund short-term and long-term goals while also paying for essential living expenses.”

The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad metro area of ​​California came in second with an after-tax annual salary of $79,324 needed to live comfortably. That leaves $39,662 for “needs,” $23,797 for “wants,” and $15,865 for savings and debt payments.

Third was the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area of ​​Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where someone needs a salary of $78,752.

Fourth is the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area ($78,524) and the top five was rounded out by Washington State’s Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, where the annual after-tax salary for comfortable living was $77,634.

New York, Massachusetts, California and Washington are the four wealthiest states in America, respectively, as measured by gross domestic product per capita.

SmartAsset calculated what salary is needed to live comfortably in each of America’s 25 largest metropolitan areas

The study follows another by SmartAsset that calculated the purchasing power of a $100,000 salary in several U.S. states after taxes and cost-of-living adjustments.

Salary goes furthest in Memphis, Tennessee, while New York City is the worst city in the United States to live on the sum, that survey found.

In Memphis, the carry-over value of the six-figure salary combined with the local cost of living equates to about $86,000, while in New York City it equates to only about $35,000.

The surprising data was compiled by looking at state and local taxes, local costs of living and the effects of recent inflation to determine which cities were the cheapest and most expensive to live in.

Seven of the 10 cheapest cities — where $100,000 went the farthest — were in Texas, while six of the most expensive cities were in California and on the West Coast.

The data showed that state and local taxes in Memphis reduced a $100,000 salary to $74,515 in cash. Adjusted for the local cost of living — which was a whopping 14 percent lower than the national average — $100,000 went furthest of any city in the country.

According to one study, the Detroit, Michigan metropolitan area has the second lowest cost of living in America

In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area, which spans Massachusetts and New Hampshire, someone needs a salary of $78,752. Pictured: Boylston Street, near Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

A separate study by SmartAsset found that cities in the center of the country offer the best value for money, in terms of cost of living and taxes, while coastal cities are the most expensive

The second best city to live in on a $100.00 salary was El Paso, Texas, where data showed the cost of living was 87.7 percent of the national average. There, taxes reduced the cash proceeds from $100,000 to $74,515, but adjusted for the cost of living that equaled $84,966.

Oklahoma City was third best, with net income of $70,302 discounted to $84,498 with living expenses.

Next up was Corpus Cristi, Texas, where the cost of living was 10.7 percent lower than the national average. There, $100,000 was worth about $83,443.

Taxes in Lubock, Texas cut $100,000 to $74,515. The city’s cost of living was 89.4 percent of the national average, making that net worth $83,350.

In Houston, Texas, the cost of living was 91.8 percent of the national average. $100,000 fell to $74,515 in taxes, resulting in a value of $81,350 adjusted for cost of living.