Looks like a low-level Walmart employee makes maybe as much as $12/hr in my area. Let's say I work 25hrs a week and never take any time off, so that's $1300/mo before taxes. Average apartment rent in my area is $1341/mo according to RentCafe, but 30% of rents are below that so lets say I go with one that's only $700/mo, leaving me $500/mo. That's for food, utilities, and oh yeah, the taxes I didn't take out at the beginning of this calculation.

So yes, I could theoretically just barely scrape by until some unforeseen incident leads to job loss, then I'm fucked.

> My guess is the standard of living you want is higher than the job you have can provide on 40 hr per week. Managing lifestyle is the most controllable part of the equation

I'd like to maintain a standard of living not too much below what I have. My salary easily covers my lifestyle even with savings, Roth IRA, 401k, and mortgage. I could probably maintain my current lifestyle on less than half of my salary if only it were in any way possible to simply get half the money for half the time. Sadly the world doesn't work like that.

But your point is taken that I really shouldn't have said "even remotely livable".