Summary

With a population of 323 million people and an area of 50 states that covers 3.797 million squared miles, there is a vast difference in how much it costs to live in each city across the U.S. In this video, we cover a budgeting tool to first get you thinking about your monthly expenses and financial goals, which are very important to factor in when researching the cost of living in different cities throughout the United States. This video then shows a cost comparison tool that you can use to compare the cost of living between 2 different cities. This tool can help you understand which city is more affordable so you can accurately determine you location preferences based on your own personal financial goals.

Transcript

Hello, everyone. My name is Emal Hassan, and I'm Steve Davis.

Today, we're going to go over a couple of budgeting tools that will help you set up your monthly budget and understand how much things cost here in US.

So the first tool that we're looking at is the budgeting calculator.

The number that I use is the average of $4,000. This is the take home pay after taxes, benefits and everything else.

Based off of that, for housing I'm estimating $1,200 for a two bedroom unit.

That would run $12 a month for renters insurance and around $220 for utilities.

In terms of food, I'm estimating $600 for a couple.

That would also include $100 if you were to go out to eat twice a month at a decent restaurant.

In terms of transportation, I'm estimating $400 for car payment, $60 for car insurance, and $150 for gas which is pretty normal.

And then in terms of education, that would depend if you're coming with family and if you're going to school, college savings and what have you.

The personal and family, $60 for cell phone, $200 for clothing, and entertainment about $200 a month as well.

And then health care, that will also depend on if you're coming with family, number of dependents, etc.

Last but not least, savings. How much you report paying into your 401k, college savings account, or if you have any other alternatives for retirement.

Now I'll pass the baton to Steven who's going to talk to you about cost of living for different cities.

Alright.

Next, we will be going over a cost comparison to 2 maybe potential cities that you could end up going to.

We have Baltimore, Maryland, and we have Heron, Illinois.

What this is is, again, based on $4,000 a month or $48,000 a year, and what it does is it will compare - well, it'll show you the comparison of the two cities. So you would be able to compare taxes, or if you wanted to see the difference in housing, how that would look, you could compare the housing.

Or if you wanted to compare the food, you would click on the food tab and compare the food.

Also, if you wanted to switch any anywhere you wanna go, you would just put in the city in either tab and then you would just move up from there. You would put how many adults and how many children, and it will give you more answers.

Links

• https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cost-of-living-calculator
• https://www.thebalancemoney.com/budgeting-calculator-5120904