A dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to these days.
Remember when you could buy a candy bar for a quarter? When pay phones were a dime? (We know – what’s a pay phone?). When a quarter really could get you almost anything – from a can of soda to a round on an arcade game.
Now you’re lucky if you can get the exact same can of soda for $1 or $1.50. Manufacturing costs and vending machine costs haven’t really made the price jump that high. It’s merely INFLATION AT WORK.
So if you could live anywhere in the country and only had $100 to your name, WHICH STATE IN THE COUNTRY WOULD YOUR DOLLAR GO THE FURTHEST?
It’s all about purchasing power.
We know that a modest 2-bedroom apartment in San Francisco will rent for $3000 a month or more. That exact same 2-bedroom apartment just over the state line in Oregon may cost just $1200 per month.
As they say, location is everything. And so it goes with your dollar.
So taking into account an average for living expenses and other similar costs, the Tax Foundation has leveled the playing field for analysis, and can tell you exactly what the monetary differences are between the states.
In other words – they have answered the question of how far a dollar can take you, literally.
These are the FIVE STATES WITH THE WORST VALUATION FOR YOUR $100:
- Washington DC
- Hawaii
- New York
- New Jersey
- California
And if you want to know where your $100 will GO THE FURTHEST, then you should head directly to one of these states:
- Mississippi
- Arkansas
- Missouri
- Alabama
- South Dakota
Yup, if you want to live like a freakin’ mogul on a tiny amount of money, you can definitely do it.
But South Dakota? (“Brrrrrrr”. Is that worth the money you’d save versus living someplace a little bit warmer?)