Andy Kiersz/Business Insider
Many cities in the Midwest and the South - and even one in California - appear on the list.
If you can live by the 50-30-20 plan - spend 50% of your income on necessities, spend 30% on discretionary items, and save the remaining 20% - you're probably in pretty good financial shape.That is, you're living comfortably, according to a new report from GOBankingRates on the income needed to afford living in the 50 biggest cities in America. But because cost of living and wages vary from city to city, you may be able to achieve this budget with ease in some places; in others, it's a much more challenging task.
To find out where you could live by the 50-30-20 budget on a salary of $50,000 or less a year - just shy of the median household income in the US - Business Insider filtered GOBankingRates' data on the 50 most populous US cities.
The income needed for each city was determined by monthly expenses - housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and health insurance - for a single person. GoBankingRates multiplied the total monthly cost of necessities for each city by 12 to get the annual cost. To live by the 50-30-20 rule, a person would need to earn twice as much as their expenses, so GoBankingRates doubled the total cost of necessities to arrive at the total recommended income for each city.
Below, check out the 19 places where you can live on a salary of $50,000 or less a year, including several cities in the Midwest and South. For context, we've also included how much the median household actually earns in each location.