#cost-of-living

#cost-of-living

While most people focus on the dollar amount they want to retire with, that is putting the cart before the horse. To understand how much you need to save, you first need to figure out how much you are going to spend in retirement. The rule of thumb for retirement says to plan on needing around 80% of what you're spending pre-retirement. Of course, this is simply a general benchmark, and every individual's needs will be different. Many retirees actually spend closer to 70% of pre-retirement income (on average), while others may need more than 100% depending on healthcare, housing, or lifestyle. Across a broad swath of the population, people have pretty similar ideas on what categories they will be spending their money on.

Courtney El Refai may call Sweden home, but every six weeks the 32-year-old commutes some 5,300 miles away to work at a San Francisco hospital as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse. While some may call it crazy, El Refai said it's all worth it for her dream job. Making over $100 an hour on a per diem schedule, she only has to work four, eight-hour shifts every four weeks.

New Zealand is well known for its breathtaking 'Lord of the Rings' landscapes, Maori culture, stunning wildlife, and adventure sports playground. The country was listed 9th on US News' list of best countries in the world in 2024, coming in at number two for a comfortable retirement. The population is generally a happy bunch, too. When asked to rate their general life satisfaction between 0 and 10, New Zealanders graded themselves at 7.3, on average, higher than the OECD average of 6.7.

He was 27 when he became the first millennial to be elected to the state Assembly in 2012. But he was no newcomer even then Calderon comes from a line of politicians from southeast Los Angeles County. His father, Charles Calderon, started the dynasty when he was elected to the Assembly in 1982. Two of his uncles also served in the Legislature and federal prison for corruption.

The brutal combination of rising labor costs, commodity costs, and supply chain disruptions post-pandemic has pushed food prices up by a whopping 31% since 2019, and the threat of the Trump Administration's steep tariffs could make grocery bills even worse. This has had a direct effect on how Americans eat, with Pew reporting that the percent of food insecure households rose by 30% from 2020 to 2023.

Known for its incredible coffee, gorgeous beaches, and welcoming culture, it's no wonder Panama was named the best country in the world for expats. The designation was part of a 2025 expat insider survey from expat community InterNations, which was shared with Travel + Leisure. In Panama, which took the top spot for the second year in a row, 94 percent of expats surveyed

"Most businesses are making ­decisions to cut hours as they try to stay viable. We all want our staff to have a good standard of living but they have issues with housing, healthcare, childcare and energy costs, and we can't keep forcing those costs back on businesses. "We are now going from the best ­little country in the world to do business to the most expensive country in the world to do business... People have to start reading the tea leaves."

The most affordable lake town in the U.S., according to their rankings, is Grenada, Mississippi. Located in north-central Mississippi, about 1.5 hours from both Jackson and Memphis, Grenada has a very low cost of living (just $2,493 a month) thanks in part to low average mortgage costs, which are around $708 a month. The average value of a single-family home is $123,711, and the median household income is $42,470.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the heartbreaking case of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who died in July. "He was failed by the Government. Harvey's case is not an isolated case. Such failures are shamefully a hallmark of your Government," she told Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns also raised the case, slating the Government for painfully slow progress on the issue of disability. "Sixteen thousand children are overdue an assessment of need, essential therapies are non-existent and hundreds of children left in agony waiting for spinal surgery," she said.

The Swiss city was found to be the most expensive city to live in on Earth, according to a 2025 mid-year cost of living index from Numbeo, a crowd-sourced database. The index "measures the relative prices of consumer goods and services-including groceries, dining, transportation, and utilities-but excludes housing costs like rent or mortgage payments." The site uses New York City as its baseline city (with an index value of 100) to generate cost of living index numbers for other cities around the world. Relative to that, Zurich scored 112.5, which the company said "suggests that everyday expenses" are higher than in New York.

Last year's presidential election underscored, particularly to Democrats, that the costs of living were a major factor in the outcome. Inflation had increased sharply during Joe Biden's presidency, and voters' angst about rising prices worked against Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign to succeed him in the White House. Not surprisingly, therefore, when the California Legislature opened its 2025 session, its dominant Democrats declared that they would focus on taming the state's notoriously high costs for housing, fuel, utilities and other necessities of modern life.

With a customer base that's spending less in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and rising operational costs (including higher rents and energy prices, a VAT rate of 20%, and increases in National Living Wage and National Insurance contributions), restaurant owners are watching profit margins get thinner and thinner. Richard H. Turner of Bodean's broke it down like this: "25 years ago, you would be trying to hit a 20% net profit.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

MarketBeat.com's new report, which surveyed more than 3,000 parents, found that an increasing number are charging their adult children interest on family loans. "The Bank of Mom and Dad has always been generous, but even generosity comes with boundaries," says Matt Paulson, founder of MarketBeat.com. "What's striking is that while most parents don't expect repayment - and certainly not at commercial interest rates - inflation and rising costs are starting to reshape how families think about money."

Until very recently, it looked like the teens of the 2020s were behaving very differently. In 2023, more than a fifth of Gen Zers were sober and only one in 10 had tried a Class A drug, with many turning away from drink and drug-induced depravity in favour of healthier, more wholesome activities like gym dates and ' grandma crafts'. But a new IWSR survey, released in June, indicates that famously sensible ' generation clean ' are back on the booze.

As President Donald Trump openly contemplates sending military forces into more American cities, the leading congressional Democrats almost invariably describe his actions as an attempt to create a "distraction" from something else - whether that's the cost of living, the massive Medicaid cuts he signed into law, or the controversy around the Jeffrey Epstein files. That reflex captures the overwhelming preference of top DC Democrats to frame the 2026 election on familiar partisan grounds, particularly the charge that Trump has failed in his core 2024 promise to bring down the cost of living for average families.

Overtourism protests moved outside of Europe this summer, as residents of Mexico City took to the streets to march against rising costs of living in neighborhoods popular with digital nomads and international visitors.

When we finally paused to ask ourselves why we were living that way, the answer was simple: money. We needed to earn enough to sustain our expensive lifestyle, which meant working jobs that left us depleted, sacrificing our mental health, and rarely having quality time as a family. So we made a bold decision: My wife quit her job, I stayed on in a remote position, and we left the city behind to lower our cost of living .

Nestled along the Ohio River with a vibrant mix of historic charm and modern living, Cincinnati offers homebuyers a city rich in culture, opportunity, and neighborhood pride. Cincinnati's housing market is somewhat competitive. Homes receive about 3 offers and sell in roughly 43 days. The median sale price was $294,243 in July 2025, up 7.0% year over year, with a median $185 per square foot.

Seniors in 41 states are projected to have more expenses than income during their golden years, putting them at risk for outliving their retirement savings, according to a new study by Seniorly, an assisted living online marketplace. The amount they're missing, on average, over the course of their retirement years: $115,000. RELATED: Leaving California: Where's the best state to move to in 2025? In California, the gap between projected income and expenses for retirees is far higher: $337,000. Along with the Golden State, three other states New York, Hawaii and Alaska have the nation's highest retirement gaps, where people's income likely can't keep up with expenses.

Affan Kurniawan was killed on Thursday after an armoured police vehicle ran into him outside Indonesia's House of Representatives, as riot police were dispersing crowds who had gathered to demand higher wages, lower taxes and the removal of allowances for politicians. Motorcycle taxi drivers gathered outside Jakarta Mobile Brigade Corps headquarters on Friday to protest against Kurniawan's death, and students urged protesters to rally later outside police headquarters in the capital city.

I don't know my parents' financial situation, but it's playing on my mind that maybe this is favouritism?

For more and more Americans, living abroad isn't just a fantasy-it's becoming a practical, affordable lifestyle choice. Whether you're a digital nomad, a gap-year adventurer, or someone simply seeking a reset, spending a year abroad can be transformative. And the best part? There are over a dozen countries that offer visa-free or long-stay entry for U.S. citizens for up to a year.

SmartAsset found that Massachusetts is the most expensive state for a family of four to live comfortably. A Massachusetts family's income needs to be $313,747 to live comfortably, SmartAsset reported. Last year, a four-person household needed an income of $301,184 to do so. Meanwhile, the most expensive state for a single person to live comfortable is Hawaii with a $124,467 salary needed. For single individuals, Massachusetts is a close second with a yearly income of $120,141 needed.