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Does your day-to-day existence seem a little tenuous? Do you feel guilty when you buy brand-name toothpaste and do you wake up in a cold sweat after a dream involving a trip to the ER? You, my friend, are not alone.
According to a post today on GoBankingRates, you need to make $60,195 to "live comfortably" in Portland. And the median household income here is $53,230 (which still seemed pretty good to lots of folks we surveyed by reading the numbers aloud).
So yeah, you're probably feeling some discomfort. Maybe that's what the weed is for? If you can afford it?
"GOBankingRates conducted a cost-of-living comparison of the 75 most populous U.S. cities, surveying dollar amounts of living expenses including rent, groceries, utilities, transportation and healthcare," writes the post's author, Elyssa Kirkham. "This total, which accounts for necessities, was then doubled to find how much money a single person needs to earn in that city to follow a 50-30-20 budget."
A 50-30-20 budget means: 50 percent of your income goes towards essentials, 30 percent goes to financial obligations and 20 percent goes to "personal choices."
It is a disheartening but not even remotely surprising finding for those who live and work (for pennies) here. Though it could always be worse. Take for example, the fine city of San Francisco, where the study says to live comfortably you should make $119,570. That's more than Los Angeles ($74,371) or New York City ($87,446).
Turns out the dream of being able to focus on your band and your screen printing guerrilla art while you work part-time at a bike store just isn't feasible in Portland anymore, unless you're willing to deal with some discomfort. Scabies level discomfort. Crackers and ketchup for dinner discomfort.
Though, when you think about it, isn't that more punk rock anyway?
Willamette Week