Is 90,000 A Good Salary A Year In 2022? (Quick Answer!)

Everyone who wants to live the American dream knows the drill. You have to put in the hard work and bring in a decent amount of money every month. But is 90000 a good salary to live on every year?

Whether $90,000 is a good salary depends on the geographical area in which you live and work. If you live in West Virginia, $90,000 would be a decent annual salary. It’s a different case if you live and work in New York, San Francisco, or DC, as the cost of living in these states is higher. 

As you can see, whether or not an annual salary of $90,000 is good enough really isn’t something cast in stones.

You generally have to look at the cost of living to determine if you can live on such an amount. Keep in mind that American is a massive state varied in expenses. So it’s only by researching the cost of living that you can really know where you stand.

Is $90K a Year a Good Income?

The minimum hourly wage in the United States of America stands at $7.75. If you earn $90,000 in gross annual income, you fall into the categories of people making about $43.27 an hour, almost 6 times the hourly wage of an average earner.

Does that mean a salary of $90,000 a year is good?

Well, it depends.

$90K may be a good salary or otherwise depending on your financial goals, demographic, and the number of people in your household.

If you wish to live in expensive states such as New York and DC, where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is about $2,500, even a salary of $100,000 a year may not be good enough to live on.

Also, if you have a family to take care of, a monthly salary of about $5,700 may not be enough to cater for their needs.

Overall, whether or not $90,000 is a good salary will depend on what your monthly or annual financial goals are.

If you need more money because you want to accomplish many things in life, it may be best to consider additional streams of income.

How Much is $90,000 a Year Per Month After Taxes?

Every American is subject to paying taxes. And if you earn $90,000 every year, that isn’t usually the much money you take home.

To be abundantly clear, it’s your after tax income that’s what you actually pockets to pay your bills and build your life.

Let’s do some simple calculations to help you get a clear picture.

Let’s say your employer pays you on a monthly basis. It means you make $7,500 per month before taxes.

You need to pay Medicare tax, Federal income tax, and social security tax from the $7,500 that you just earned. Assuming that you don’t have dependents, you’ll end up paying about $1,231 for federal tax, $109 for Medicare tax, and $465 in Social Security tax.

After making the deductions, you’ll have around $5,700 to live on, which might be enough to live on or otherwise depending on the number of people in your household.

It’s important to understand that every state has its own independent tax rules. So the amount you pay as taxes will mostly depend on your state’s requirements.

Can You Live Comfortably on $90,000 a Year?

If you’ve been lucky to land a job that pays you $90,000 a year, you’re still likely to wonder whether you can comfortably live on such an amount all year round.

Most Americans don’t consider $90K to be a lot of money. For what it’s worth, the assumption is that you need to have a net worth of at least $1.9 million to consider yourself wealthy. 

Still, it’s possible to make ends meet if you’re not worth $1.9 million, with a salary of $90,000 a year, of course.

For example, a family of three can live on $90,000 a year comfortably provided the members in that household aren’t too demanding and the city in which you live is an affordable option. The amount should be enough to cover living expenses and extras.

Given that the average household income in the United States is about $68,400, you won’t afford to live in the most expensive cities such as Boston and San Francisco. But you can live on such an amount just fine in states such as Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, and Alabama.

3 Factors That Determine Whether 90000 is a Good Salary

Here are number of factors that determine whether $90,000 is a good salary for you:

1. Where You Live

Your demography is the number one factor that determines whether 90,000 dollars is a good salary to live on.

You need to understand that the cost of living varies from state to state, and that’s just a natural way of life. Generally, the cost of living will be far much less if you live in states like Michigan and West Virginia and apparently higher if you for someone who lives in Washington DC or New York.

Beyond monthly house rent, transportation cost also varies on demography, with the luxurious means of travel being obviously higher, especially in the rapidly developing states.

2. Your Current Lifestyle

Here’s the deal:

People live differently. Some like to go shopping every week, some love to travel every weekend, and some like to do these things occasionally.

Depending on the demography and the cost of living, some people may even travel by plane instead of taking a train. Others prefer eating out to cooking a meal at home.

You get the idea.

The bottom line is that you have to consider your way of life, and then use that to determine whether 90,000 is a good salary for you.

3. Your Future Expectations

An interesting fact about life is that it’s complete unpredictable. And if a $90,000 annual salary is anything to go by, your expectations may vary quite significantly, even if you know what you want to achieve.

Do you want to take a life insurance? Are you planning to buy a car? Do you plan to build a house in the future?

There are many questions to ask to determine whether a $90,000 salary would be a good option for you. And these are just a few such questions.

Is $90,000 a Year Middle Class?

As I mentioned before, you need to have a net worth of at least $1.9 million to consider yourself rich in the United States.

So if you’re making between $54,000 and $120,000a year, and you live in the United States of America, you can consider yourself a middle class person. You’re also likely a middle class if you rent a median house price in your city.

Higher earners would fall into the category of rich people. Notably, the persons who make between $107,000 and $374,000 a year can consider themselves to be among the generally rich people in America.

However, not many people in America make six figures a year.

According to US Census Bureau, only about 38% of the households in America make over $100,000 a year from 2018. The median household income currently stands a $78,646 and the mean is around $106,000 annually.

Still, $90,000 isn’t bad, despite those earning that much not considered rich. At least you can cater for household expenses with ease, especially considering that there are states in which you can live for cheap.

How Much is a 90,000 Salary Per Month?

Before we get to the details, here’s a table showing a breakdown of how much a $90,000 per year salary would be if broken down into different periods:

Income Type	Amount Paid
Annually	$90,000
Monthly	$7,500
Bi-weekly	$3,462
Weekly	$1,731
Daily	$247

As you can see, people who earn $90,000 a year make around $43.75 hourly, which is more than the minimum hourly wage in the United States of America.

Your $90,000 salary is $7,500 per month without tax. You’ll take home about $5,700 after Income, Medicare, and Social Security tax deductions.

Keep in mind that every state has their own tax rates, so the much you take home every month after deduction will be subject to such tax policies.

Some employers opt to pay every 14 days for work done, and that puts you in a position to earn 24 paychecks per year. In this case, your salary will be $3,462 before tax deduction and pre-tax contributions.

There are employers who pay $90,000 a year on a weekly basis. Expect to receive 52 paychecks a year, or simply 4 paychecks per month, if they’ve put you in this kind of a payment plan, which means you’ll earn $1,731 per week before any contributions or deductions.

You might even land a job that pays on a daily basis. And wouldn’t be nice to know your every day’s worth?

There are 261 working days in a year. So if you’re making $90,000 annually, it means you make an average of $250 a day. The rate may vary, though, depending on the number of hours you work, but the average range tends to be more or less the same.

Is 90000 a Good Salary for a Single Person?

A salary of $90,000 a year is good for a single person depending on where they live in the United States.

For example, it’s possible to get by with $22,000 per year in Arkansas and in Kentucky, or at least $30,000 a year if you wish to live in Hawaii.

You’d still have a lot of money left to live on for the next one or two years as a single person with an average salary of $90,000a year.

Final Thoughts: Is 90000 A Good Salary

Whether or not $90,000 a year is a good salary will depend on where you live, what your expectations are, the size of your family, and your lifestyle.

For a single person, this five-figure earning should be enough to live on. It’s also a good salary range for a small family of at least most four, provided the family doesn’t live in an expensive city such as New York or DC.

Also, proper financial planning can go a long way to help you live well on such salary.