Just checked out some cost of living data and honestly the gap between what people actually earn and how much money to live comfortably is pretty wild in some states. Hawaii is basically in another universe - you'd need over $206k annually to live comfortably there but the median household income is only around $98k. That's a $108k gap, which is absolutely insane.

California's not much better at $76k difference. Massachusetts, Washington, Montana and Oregon all have gaps over $40k too. The crazy part is how much money to live comfortably varies so drastically depending on where you live. Some places like Hawaii and California are just on another level entirely.

On the flip side, there are actually six states where the gap is pretty reasonable - under $10k. North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas and Iowa all have differences of $9,877 or less between comfortable income and actual earnings. So if you're trying to figure out how much money to live comfortably without moving to a coastal state, those might actually be viable options.

The study used the 50/30/20 rule to calculate this - basically doubling total living costs to find what comfortable living actually costs. When you see it broken down by state like this, it really puts into perspective why people are feeling the squeeze in certain areas. Some states you can actually get by on median income, but in others you're looking at needing significantly more to hit that comfortable lifestyle mark.