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13 Major U.S. Cities Where You Can Live Well on Less Than $50,000 a Year

13 Major U.S. Cities Where You Can Live Well on Less Than $50,000 a Year 

Can't afford $4,100 for a Manhattan apartment? Consider these alternatives.


Money experts from Warren Buffett on down all say the same thing: If you want to live a happy, comfortable life, make sure to keep your daily expenses in check, so that your salary will more than cover them. That's great advice, but it's increasingly difficult to follow as living expenses, particularly for housing and health care, continue to climb. This summer, average U.S. average rent reached an all-time high of $1,405 a month. In Manhattan, the most expensive rental market in the country, average rents climbed to more than $4,100, and in San Francisco, the second priciest, they were more than $3,500.
What you need is a major city with lots of opportunity but affordable rent and living expenses. Believe it or not, such places do exist. The personal finance site GOBankingRates recently highlighted 35 cities where you can live comfortably for $50,000 a year or less. They calculated this using the 50/30/20 rule in which half of your income goes for necessities including housing, transportation, groceries and health care, another 30 percent goes for luxuries such as sports or entertainment, and the last 20 percent goes to savings. By that logic, any place where you can get the necessities for half your income or less is likely a place where you can live a comfortable life. 
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