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Living Wage Calculator

livingwage.mit.edu

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Re: Living Wage Calculator

#11

Post by function_seven »

8077628 wrote: post #10

I agree this seems low. Both housing and additional expenses. How do I know if I'm the victim of an hedonic treadmill?

(Edited to add housing comment)

I agree the housing seems low. For my county, it worked out to ~$750 a month for a single childless household. I’ve never seen a rent that low around me. I assume shared living must be on the table for this.

As for the other living expenses, and whether you’re on a hedonic treadmill:

* How many meals a month are from a restaurant of any kind?

* How many of the following do you have paid subscriptions for? Cable/satellite, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, etc.

* Do you set your thermostat to lower than 75°F/23°C in the summer, or higher than 65°F/18°C in the winter?

* Do you buy cars new? Or almost always have a car payment?

* Any microwave meals or individually packaged snacks?

* Alcohol on any semi-regular basis?

* Coffee that’s more than 25¢ a cup?

None of the above are (moral) value judgements, but they’re really easy to get accustomed to and not consider as discretionary items.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#12

Post by gizmo686 »

Since others have commented that they found the expense low, I decided to check mine. In my particular county in Maryland (don't want to give the exact one for privacy reasons), the total expanses for a single adult match my experience almost exactly. Excluding retirement and other savings, the reported total expenses was with 20$/month of my experience.

The housing category seems to assume that a single adult has a roomate though.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#13

Post by olcor »

alok-g wrote: post #7

The following is much more useful, and covers many more cities across the world: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

I’ve found numbeo to be practically useless for most cities I’ve been to and stayed. MITs calculator is much more accurate, especially if you are someone who doesn’t earn a high wage.

Most people aren’t going to stay in Greenwich village/SOHO/UES if they are in NY, or similar elsewhere. Prices reflected in the MIT calculator seem to take all areas of living into account, that too by county.

Edit: Numbers on numbeo seem to have improved a lot since the last time I saw them. Taking back my previous opinion, but I find both to be useful resources.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#14

Post by alok-g »

olcor wrote: post #13
alok-g wrote: post #7

The following is much more useful, and covers many more cities across the world: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

I’ve found numbeo to be practically useless for most cities I’ve been to and stayed. MITs calculator is much more accurate, especially if you are someone who doesn’t earn a high wage. Most people aren’t going to stay in Greenwich village/SOHO/UES if they are in NY, or similar elsewhere. Prices reflected in the MIT calculator seem to take all areas of living into account, that too by county. Edit: Numbers on numbeo se…

Hmmm. I found it to be a good reflection of where I've stayed. The data is sometimes lagging by a year or so.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#15

Post by nabla9 »

alok-g wrote: post #7

The following is much more useful, and covers many more cities across the world: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

Numbeo has reputation of being very inconsistent. For some cities and countries it's relatively accurate, for some others it's wrong or outdated.

It's partly due to their data collecting methodology. They rely on crowd-sourced user inputs and manually collected data. I also have doubt about their analysis methodology, it's seems very ad hoc and amateurish.

You should treat Numbeo with a grain of salt. It's honest attempt with small budget and better than nothing, but you can't treat it as authoritative source.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#17

Post by mac01021 »

The "typical annual expenses" have a row for housing (as they should), in which the numbers are maybe interesting if you're interested in such things:

- Unsurprisingly, a single, childless adult has the lowest housing costs.

- A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom.

- Adding a second child has no effect on the housing cost, presumably because the two children may share a bedroom. I understand this, but it is interesting that someone who is willing to make their kid share a room is unwilling to share a room with their kid.

- 2 adults with no kids pay slightly more than a single adult (i guess they need a little more space, but can still share a bedroom?)

- 2 adults with 2 children have EXACTLY the same cost as 1 adult with 1 child?

- A third child seems to require its own bedroom.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#18

Post by thaumasiotes »

mac01021 wrote: post #17

The "typical annual expenses" have a row for housing (as they should), in which the numbers are maybe interesting if you're interested in such things: - Unsurprisingly, a single, childless adult has the lowest housing costs. - A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom. - Adding a second child has no effect on the housing cost, presumably because the…

> A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom.

I find this funny, because it takes several years before a child will stop actively expressing its preference _not_ to have its own bedroom.

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#19

Post by benj111 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #18
mac01021 wrote: post #17

The "typical annual expenses" have a row for housing (as they should), in which the numbers are maybe interesting if you're interested in such things: - Unsurprisingly, a single, childless adult has the lowest housing costs. - A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom. - Adding a second child has no effect on the housing cost, presumably because the…

> A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom. I find this funny, because it takes several years before a child will stop actively expressing its preference _not_ to have its own bedroom.

My 2.5yr old has never expressed a preference for sleeping in my room. He likes to come in first thing in a morning if that's what you mean?

Re: Living Wage Calculator

#20

Post by thaumasiotes »

benj111 wrote: post #19
thaumasiotes wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A single adult with 1 child pays a lot more for housing, presumably because the child requires its own bedroom. I find this funny, because it takes several years before a child will stop actively expressing its preference _not_ to have its own bedroom.

My 2.5yr old has never expressed a preference for sleeping in my room. He likes to come in first thing in a morning if that's what you mean?

No, I mean sleeping in your room.
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