How to Calculate the Cost of Living in the United States
Are you moving to a new state or city in the United States? You most likely want to know what the cost of living will be where you are thinking of moving. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is updated every year to show the cost of living (see Resources). To find out the cost of living in a particular state, you will need to call the phone listed in the CPI report. There are many cost of living calculators available on the Internet and the following step-by-step articles will help you in using a cost of living calculator.
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Instructions
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How to Calculate the Cost of Living in the United States
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Determine what you annual income is by multiplying you paycheck amount by 52 if you get paid every week, or multiply by 26 if you get paid every two weeks.
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Go to a cost of living calculator (see Resources). The majority of cost of living calculators on the Internet will have you compare one U.S. city to another. This is still helpful in finding the cost of living in the U.S. city that you'd like. If you are thinking of moving to the U.S. from another country, you can still compare between cities to get a good idea of what the cost is between locations.
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Choose where you are moving from using the drop-down menu. It doesn't matter if you are really planning on moving from a certain location, you can use this for any comparison between cities. For examples, choose "Balitmore - Towson MD Metro".
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Choose where you're moving to in the next drop-down menu. For example, choose "Chicago, IL".
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Type in 50,000 in the "Enter your current income" field, for example of this step-by-step. Click on the Refresh Listing button. You can now view a list of goods and the different costs of living between the two cities. These comparison cost of living calculators will be your most beneficial tools in calculating any cost of living in the U.S.
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Tips & Warnings
Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website for many tool and tips. There is also an inflation calculator to see how the dollar has changed between years (see Resources).
