Cost of Living
Also called: living costs, cost of living index
Cost of living is what it takes to cover the basics — housing, food, transport, healthcare, tax — in a particular place. It's why a $120,000 salary in San Francisco can leave you poorer than $80,000 in Kansas City: housing alone can swing the number by 60%. Cost-of-living indexes set a national average at 100 and score cities against it, which makes them useful for comparing job offers across cities but weak at capturing your own basket, which is what actually matters.
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