The salary you need to live comfortably in the 10 most affordable major U.S. cities

City living can offer a number of benefits over a more rural or suburban area. Cities often boast more job opportunities, higher pay and, in some cases, better health outcomes. Not to mention walkability and easy access to entertainment.

Living in a major U.S. city often comes at a high cost, though. Jobs in places like New York and Los Angeles may pay better, but those cities come with exorbitantly expensive living costs that can make it difficult to get ahead, even with relatively high earnings.

But if the benefits of city life are worth it to you, you don't necessarily have to pay New York or L.A. prices to get many of those amenities. Smaller U.S. cities like Indianapolis, New Orleans and Baltimore offer the benefits of city living at a lower cost.

In Indianapolis, a single adult needs to make $85,197 a year to afford basic expenses, with room for leisure spending and saving, according to a new SmartAsset analysis of the 100 largest U.S. cities. In San Jose, California, that figure rises to $147,430, the highest in the country.

The personal finance website used data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator to estimate basic living costs for each city, then applied those costs to the commonly used 50/30/20 budget to determine how much a resident would need to earn to live there.

The 50/30/20 budget prescribes putting 50% of your income toward your needs, 30% toward wants and 20% toward savings and debt repayment. 

Here are the 10 largest U.S. cities with the lowest salaries required to live comfortably, according to SmartAsset. Median household income data is from the latest U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.

With necessary living costs like rent and groceries remaining elevated, it's becoming more difficult for Americans to follow the 50/30/20 budgeting standard.

Rent prices in February 2025 were around 27% higher than the same month in 2020, according to Federal Reserve data. And prices for groceries have risen similarly over the last five years.

Although housing tends to be one of the biggest line items on Americans' budgets, it can be difficult to trim costs, especially as an adult living alone. Your budget may look more like 75/15/10 — and that's OK. Experts recommend doing your best to make any kind of progress toward your saving and investing goals, even if it's slow.

But if you are looking for ways to save more, money experts say to focus on "needle movers," such as your salary or housing costs, rather than little things like whether you're buying a coffee a few times a week.

If you choose to get a roommate, for example, you can take the money you save on rent and invest it, Rachel Camp, a certified financial planner, previously told CNBC Make It.

"If I don't buy a latte every day, it will save me a good $2,000 a year," she said. "If I could afford a $2,000 apartment by myself, but split it with a roommate and pay $1,000 less, that's $12,000 a year. That's where those big savings can really happen."

Additionally, increasing your income by negotiating a raise or picking up a side hustle can help if you feel like you can't trim your costs any further.

"There's a limit to how much you can cut, but there is no limit to how much you can earn," self-made millionaire and money expert Ramit Sethi said previously.

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