<prompt> Human: Hi fellow finance conscious redditors,Recently there was a post on the front page of reddit about how 45,000 a year was difficult to live on in certain areas of the country. Primarily in large expensive cities. While the premise is not inaccurate depending on some context and individual variance I noticed the comments proclaiming that 45,000 a year in general was not much money.But I want to dismiss this narrative. I think it is false and I want to put it into some quick numbers to demonstrate this. Keep in mind the following examples are from my own perspective, and may miss some elements. If you feel that something important or obvious was not mentioned, please let me know. First off, were assuming an annual before-tax income of 45,000. In the USA, on average, this would translate to roughly 36,000 in after-tax income. Rent: 1,000 Using data from for an average one bedroom apartment Food: 300 Utilities: 250 electricity and internet Car: 250 bought used - only paying gas, maintenance and insurance Health Premiums: 235 Clothes: 50 Cell Phone: 50 Miscellaneous: 40 toiletries, spur of the moment expenses. Total: 2,175 per month to live quite well in the averaged out prices of the USA. Per Year: 26,100This means at the income of 36,000 a year, your total annual savings will be essentially 10,000. Now, this assumes a few crucial things. The first, you dont have student loan debt. If you do, that savings rate could easily drop by 2,500 a year. Still, that would leave you with 7,500 saved per year. Not terrible. The second, this assumes absolutely no drugs. No cigarettes. No alcohol. These are very significant expenses. In fact, combined, they can dwarf student loan payments. Third, this assumes you arent eating out every other day. At 300 a month for food, you can eat out once, maybe twice per month. Fourth, you arent going to be the best dressed person in the room. 50 a month isnt much for clothing, but it is more than livable. And fifth, you have to drive a used car. It doesnt have to be very old, just used. If you buy new, the monthly car price category could easily double. Now you can increase your savings rate by making further cuts. For me personally, I can get by on 250 a month on food. I also dont drive. I walk bike take the bus. Thats 300 less already. I also dont run the heat AC much and take short showers. Electricity could easily be 50 cheaper for me. Just taking those numbers, that would save me an extra 4,200 a year. That would be 14,200 saved per year. This amounts to 165,727 saved after ten years, at a modest 3 interest. If you start doing this at 20, or 25, you could have nearly 200,000 by the time youre 35. By the time youre 45, youll have 389,352. 55, 691,10165, retirement age, 1,100,000. Social security. At 5,000 less than the median income in the USA, you can be 100,000 over a millionaire by the time you retire, at an extremely modest 3 interest rate. Bump that to 5 and youre at 1.8 million. To be fair, this does assume your income increases with inflation, but that isnt too hard. It also assumes that you dont have kids again this is largely speaking from my perspective so it wont fit everyone perfectly.With kids, that could drop significantly, though even then, youre still looking at a very healthy retirement. Also, the above calculations were factoring in my increased rate of saving of 14,200 per year. At 10,000, by 65 starting to save at 25 youd have 773,336 saved at 3 interest. At 5, youd have 1.27 million. All I wanted to do here was show that it is possible to live very well and still save for retirement, even at less than the median income in the USA. It just requires a bit of planning and willpower.Assistant: The budget that you list is not an example of living well. 40 a month on discretionary purchases basically means that you go to work, come home, cook dinner, and go to bed, maybe while spending some time reading books borrowed from the library. I dont even know what somebody is doing with their weekends in this scenario.Pretty much every single thing that is fun in life costs way more money than you allow for in your budget.Human: Its from my perspective. For me, coming home, cooking good food, watching some shows, reading a book, playing some video games, thats the life. I dont need much more than that. I mean, what more is there? I might go bowling or eat a couple times a month with some friends.Im not at all the 247 party type that many are. And if thats you, Im sure this list would be hard to follow. Its very easy for me though as an introverted loner.  <response>: I think this last year in AA has changed my perspective more than I may have realized. After reading through some of these replies Im really happy Im not justifying a bar tab. Coming home to cook, hang with the cats, and watch a show on Netflix is a relaxingrewarding lifestyle for me. Im well rested, my place is always clean and I read more these days. 29 female making about 47k pre-tax with very similar expenses. I eat lunch in town with coworkers everyday instead of packing though and its draining my pockets. Talked to a lender yesterday about buying a house, terrifying, so seeing someone mirror my numbers and reiterate unnecessary expenses was good for me. Thanks! 