How much do you need to make in Texas?

The calculator

Choose a city, a home size, who lives with you and how much of your pay you want to save. Results update as you change anything. Rent comes from the same city figures as our city comparison; the other inputs are listed with sources further down.

How the math works

• 30% rule. Yearly rent divided by 0.30, the same as monthly rent × 40. It is gross income, before any tax. It ignores everything except rent.
• MIT living wage. MIT’s “required annual income before taxes” for the metro and household, from pages updated Feb 15, 2026. Dallas and Fort Worth share one metro figure. For two adults it is MIT’s case where both work. Our how much you need to make page explains what MIT counts.
• Sourced budget. We add the monthly lines we could source for the city, multiply by 12, and find the gross salary that leaves exactly that much after federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and your savings. Savings is a share of gross pay, saved after tax (no 401(k) or other pre-tax accounts).
• Groceries. USDA’s food plans are U.S. averages for cooking at home. A single adult gets our average of USDA’s man and woman aged 19–50. A single parent adds one child, which we take as the average of the two children in USDA’s family of four (the family total minus both adults, divided by two). Two adults with two kids use USDA’s family-of-four total. USDA says smaller households cost more per person, and we do not make that adjustment, so the single-person lines run a little low.
• Federal tax. 2026 brackets and standard deduction from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (table below). Single adult files single; a single parent files as head of household; two adults file jointly and split the pay evenly. We apply no credits, so families with children will usually owe less than this shows, through the child tax credit and others.
• Payroll tax. 6.2% Social Security on wages up to $184,500 per worker in 2026, plus 1.45% Medicare. We skip the additional Medicare tax that applies only to very high wages.
• State and local. Texas has no income tax. Sales tax and property tax are not separate lines here; they are built into prices and rent.

2026 federal rules we use

The 30% rule in every city

The quickest check, and it works without the calculator. Income needed is monthly rent × 40 (our arithmetic). The last numeric column is MIT’s living wage for one adult with no kids, for comparison. Rents are sourced; incomes are our math.

Every input and where it comes from

These are the exact values inside the calculator. Each comes from one of our own pages, which link on to the original source: the city comparison, how much you need to make, the city pages, electricity, transit and groceries. A dash means we have not sourced that line for the city, and the calculator leaves it out rather than guess.

Groceries: USDA food plans, monthly

What this calculator leaves out

• Electricity in most choice cities. In Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Lubbock and McAllen you pick a retail plan, and we have only the delivery charge, not a typical bill. Texas homes average about 1,096 kWh a month (ElectricityPlans, citing EIA; see Texas electricity); price a plan at your own usage and add it.
• A car. Most Texans drive. Registration, inspection and insurance are on vehicle costs; MIT’s car-based transportation estimates are on how much you need to make.
• Health insurance and child care. Both vary too much by employer, age and provider for one default. See child care costs and health care costs.
• Tax credits. The child tax credit, earned income credit and others would lower the federal tax line for many families.
• Renters insurance, water, phone and internet. Type them into the “other monthly costs” box.

This is a planning tool, not tax advice. It assumes W-2 wages and full-year residence.

Out-of-date numbers you’ll still find online

Keep going

• Rent vs. buy calculator: when owning beats renting in each city, with the same rents.
• How much you need to make: MIT’s living wage for every metro and a sample budget.
• Texas salaries: what common jobs actually pay.
• Texas taxes and pay: why no income tax does not mean low taxes.

How we check

Every input links to its source and date, and anything we calculated is labeled as our math. When we can’t source a line for a city, the calculator leaves it out instead of filling in a guess. Read the full methodology.