What does living comfortably mean to you?
There was another post today about how much it would cost to live comfortably in your city. I was wondering what comfortable meant to people? Here are my thoughts (I am in the U.S):
1) You generally feel safe in your neighborhood and home. You don’t have to live with people you don’t want to (though your place might be small, and you might not own it)
2) you can keep your place at a reasonably comfortable temperature. I realize this is subjective but if it’s winter I want to feel comfortable inside wearing a shirt and pants and a warm sweater, not wearing my winter jacket, hat, gloves, and a robe over that.
-
It’s not extremely difficult or time-consuming to clean your clothes (for me, this means my building has a shared washer/dryer). Most stuff in your home generally works okay.
-
You either live someplace which is walkable and has awesome public transport or you own a used, reliable car
-
You have health insurance AND can afford to pay your medical deductibles and copays
-
You can go to the dentist
-
You have some sort of retirement plan. If you have debt, you are able to pay down your debt. If you don’t have debt, you are able to save a little outside of your retirement
-
You have space and time to exercise. It doesn’t have to be a gym. It could be an accessible and reasonably safe outdoor area, or enough room where you live
-
You can afford to eat reasonably healthy. This doesn’t mean organic foods or exotic imported fruits. But fruits and veggies (preferably fresh but I realize that’s impractical if you live in say, Alaska), whole grains, proteins, etc, not just top ramen
10.You can afford treats. Not takeout and coffee every day, but maybe once a week. A night out with friends once or twice a month. The occasional concert or movie. Stuff like that makes life enjoyable.
- You can afford to take a little time off work. This doesn’t necessarily mean going somewhere but you should be able to take a week off occasionally without worrying about how you’re going to pay your bills that week
And yes, I’ve lived without most of these things at one time or another, but I would consider that “getting by” rather than “comfortable.” Also I obviously don’t have kids so I realize that would change things as kids need daycare and clothes and things i don’t have to think about.
TL; DR I’ve given a list of what i think makes for comfortable living, and am curious to see others thoughts on what comfortable means to them (also your country)