How Much Do Louisiana Singles Need to Earn to Live Comfortably?

Can you believe that in less than a month seniors at Jennings High, Lafayette High, Breaux Bridge High, and countless other Louisiana high schools will hold commencement ceremonies? High school graduation marks a key turning point in a young person's life. Some will go on to college. Others will enter the workforce and begin their journey without the benefit of higher education and the detriment of student loans.

For those who are contemplating entering the workforce or trying to decide on a major in college that will be the focus of their life's work, there is certainly one question that will be asked over and over. That question? How much money do I need to make to live? Or more accurately, how much money do I need to make to afford a comfortable lifestyle?

The folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that's a pretty smart bunch if you weren't familiar, have created what they call a Living Wage Calculator. The program uses economic information for a person's local area to determine how much money it would cost to live comfortably as a single adult, as a married adult, or as an adult with children.

The people from SmartAsset.com took the MIT calculations and applied their findings to what is known as the 50/30/20 rule. That rule suggests spending of 50% on basic needs like food and housing. 30% of your expenditures should be for things you want. And 20% of your income should be allocated toward savings or for paying off previous debts.

The team at SmartAsset.com used that information to come up with a list of how much money a single person would need to earn to live comfortably in each state. Too bad for the folks at MIT but their home state Massachusettes was the most expensive place for a single adult to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

Of all of the "most expensive states" Georgia was the only southern state to make the top 15. Just to give you an idea of how much you'd need to earn, the folks in Georgia need to earn $46.58 an hour to live comfortably while the folks in Massachusettes would need to earn $55.78 per hour for a similar lifestyle.

How Much Does a Single Adult Need to Earn Per Hour in Louisiana To Live Comfortably

The good news is that Louisiana is in the top 10 states where it's least expensive to live comfortably. We should note that five of the top 10 in this list were states that most people would consider to be "Southern". So, besides no snow, there are other great reasons to live below the Mason-Dixon line.

Are you ready for the numbers?  To live comfortably as a single adult in Louisiana you would need to earn an hourly wage of $39.64 per hour. That translates into an annual salary of $82,452.00. Based on Census data that means that just a little less than 2% of working people in Louisiana earn enough money to "live comfortably".

If you'd like to feel even worse about your economic status based on the formula and the figures in the SmartAsset.com study two adults raising a family of two kids in Louisiana would need to have an average income of $189,612 annually to "live comfortably".

If it makes you feel any better our Massachusetts buddies would have to earn over $300,000 a year to raise that same family unit. So, at least we have that going for us, right? And they don't have boudin and cracklins either, so there.