I live in Maryland, where rent can be pretty expensive. My gross was $88,000 last year but due to taxes, 403b, and health insurance, my take home was closer to $55,000. For context, my car is paid off, I'm not in school, I don't have kids so I wanted to know what is the max I can afford to pay on rent? A lot of apartments in the area go for more than $2,000.
What is the most I should pay in rent if I take home about $4,500 a month?
byu/ezitherese inpersonalfinance
Posted by ezitherese
10 Comments
Ideally less than 1/3rd of your take home pay. So there’s plenty left over for living and saving.
They say no more than a third of your gross pay. So I guess that’s like $2k?
But it’s a rule of thumb. Not something set in stone
30% of income would be $1375.
40% of income would be $1833.
50% of income would be $2291.
I wouldn’t personally go above 40%, myself, but I know in HCOL areas it’s tough. A quick check of Baltimore (Presuming that city) shows plenty of 1 bedrooms in the 40% range or less.
Make sure you can still save 10%.
Mm 1200-2kish. Depending on location. Generally location shouldnt be taken into account but depending where you live 1200 can be unrealistic.
The most accurate answer would be make a budget for everything except rent. Insurance, retirement, fun money, etc. The remaining is what u -could- spend.
The general rule as others mentioned is 1/3rd of your take home.
$1200 a month max. Better less. Find a roommate. Get a two bedroom two bathroom apartment so you have your own spot.
There is no definitive line in the sand. There are recommendations (as others have laid out) that are there for a reason. The more you go over that, the more that gets sacrificed elsewhere. It becomes on you to navigate that.
One thing I don’t see mentioned yet: if it’s hard to stay within guidelines for a given salary and rental market, the standard solution is finding a roommate.
I’d personally view $1,600–$1,850 as the “healthy but realistic” range for your situation. Going over $2,000 is not automatically irresponsible, but it can quietly limit your ability to build savings fast, especially if rents continue climbing or you later need to replace the car.
i would not rent at 40% of take home. I live in socal where rents have always been high and as a result i had roommates until almost 30 to avoid this
25-30% of your gross is suggested. It’s gross because that is easily predicted, so in all truthfulness it could be almost 40-50% of your net.
If the average apartment around you is $2000, that would be 24k out of your 55k net, or around 45ish%, so right in line with how much you make. Also 24/88 is 27% which is aligns with the 25-30% of your gross
As cheap as you possibly/comfortably can. Save the rest.