One person? Yes, for sure. Two of us are living between 30K and 35K in a middle COL city. If we'd spend 45K it'd feel extravagant.
I know someone who has a benefit from the Veterans Department that’s about $30,000 a year. She can’t afford to live in California but she wants to live in California. But here in St. Louis she said she’s looking for a place to live and she can’t afford anything here either.
Since I look at rents in the city I know where there are small, clean, and safe rentals for $600 a month. She has no pets. She does not require a garage. There any number of places she can live and I gave her the ZIP Code to find them.
She says she can’t find Rentals and her friend won’t help her and she doesn’t work the computer very well. So I texted to her several exact rental opportunities.
Next time I ran into her I asked her how it was going, the search for a place to live. She put on her sad face, her “I’m a victim” face and said she just can’t afford places. She mentioned where she was looking—in a very expensive area. VERY expensive. Hell even I wouldn’t be renting there and I have a few more million dollars than she does.
Next time I ran into her—same thing.
Then we ran into her friend who “ won’t help her.” Not surprisingly, we learned that he also steered her the same direction as I did. That she actually spends hours a day on her cell phone which is for all intents and purposes a “computer.” That she continues to search for rentals in high end places. But it is easier and cheaper to sponge off of him and to travel around sleeping in her friend’s guest rooms than to actually rent a place that she can afford.