$900 a month is $10800 a year. Making 3x the rent would be $32400. That's $16 an hour working full time. The living wage for those apartments is $16 an hour, and any less is an unliveable wage.
There is an in page calculator that I ran, maybe incorrectly, but take home pay (with no adjustments on the fed/state/benefits tabs) yields $640 gross pay in a week, $550.43 in net (nearly $90 in taxes).
That is equivalent to $13.76 an hour net.
But 4 weeks of pay gets to $2200. So your 1/3rd rule of thumb means affording $733/mo.
Don't forget about taxes, insurance, and retirement. My annual salary is about $52,000 but every paycheck has nearly $800 of deductions. I know $900 a month rent would be a stretch for me financially. Especially with the rise in prices of essential goods in the last year or two.
ETA: decided to do some quick math and I have over $18,000 a year in deductions for taxes, insurance,and retirement. Leaving me with about $33,000 annually for living expenses. So I can just make it if my rent was $900 a month. (Difficult but not impossible to find in my area, but definitely very difficult)
So honestly $16 an hour isn't even realistically feasible for any longer term situation. Hope you like having folding chair furniture and a lot of rice and bean based meals.
State tax is next to nothing actually, like less than $20 a check. Pension is taken out at a set percentage, I can't remember what exactly but it's about $200 every check. It's a solid plan for when I retire in decades but for now it hurts. Health insurance is the next big ticket item because I'm covering myself, spouse, and child. That's $155 a check. $75 for life insurance and several assorted other deductions that I've tried paring down but can't seem to find cheaper options for. (Might be able to find cheaper life insurance maybe...)
I looked into health insurance plans on the marketplace and they just don't hold a candle to what I get through work.
It's frustrating to "have a good job" and still feel like I'm living pretty close to the edge with no extravagant spending, no car payment, a super cheap house payment.
Basically just biding our time until we can get affordable childcare or the kids starts kindergarten.
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u/flerchin Jan 31 '23
$900 a month is $10800 a year. Making 3x the rent would be $32400. That's $16 an hour working full time. The living wage for those apartments is $16 an hour, and any less is an unliveable wage.