Is your salary enough to live in South Florida?

How much do you make in a year?

Is it $100,000? How about $75,000? $50,000?

A new report says that in order to cover basic expenses in Florida, you need to make close to $47,000.

But does that number really cover costs? And what happens to those who make less than that amount?

'I FEEL BAD, I DEFINITELY FEEL BAD'

60-year-old Maria Parra lives in Hialeah in a two-bedroom apartment.

She was married for 24 years and never needed to work, but after her divorce she did.

“I was struggling all these years. I have to get always my full-time job and two or even three part time jobs. Work on the weekends, not only Monday through Friday and work early in the mornings. I have to start work every day at 6:30 in the morning and I ended up returning to my home at 8-8:30 every day. I usually work 16 hours a day.”

On top of the side jobs, she has to get, the secretary has worked full time for Miami-Dade County Public Schools for almost 25 years.

Her salary is $39,000, “but once they take out all my taxes and that I don’t have any dependents, I ended up getting about $31,000 dollars per year,” she said.

Expenses are tight.

Parra explains: “I know for sure that I don’t live with $1,000 per month. I know for sure. I have to pay rent; my rent is $1,500. Just my rent. Not including my groceries, utilities, car payment, insurance, car insurance. So, it is difficult.”

Parra has now been focusing on saving towards her 401K every month. Living with her daughter, they split rent 50/50 and it helps.

But leisure activities are also far and few.

“I really enjoy going to the beach, but it’s kind of expensive, because of the parking lot. The parking lot is wow, if you go it will be $30 for 4 to 5 hours. Just for parking lot.”

That's why Maria was shocked about the report from Smart Asset that states that based on housing, transportation, health care, taxes, and other expenses, the minimum income a single person needs just to get by in Florida is $46,645.

“I don’t agree. I don’t think that $46,000 is enough for people who have a mortgage payment or have to pay rent.”

'IT IS EXPENSIVE"

28-year-old Bruno Santos agrees.

“I don’t know any city in Florida where that would make sense living as a single person. You still have to pay for housing, basic living necessities, and I don’t see anywhere in Florida being that cheap,” said Santos.

He works in finance for a hospitality company making $100,000 a year, and even that salary can be a little tight.

“It is expensive,” said Santos. “I am paying a bit more than half of my entire salary just on housing. The rest of it goes to necessities, like food, gas and things to get me to work.”

According to Smart Asset’s numbers, their calculations do not include spending on travel, entertainment or investment contributions, just the necessities.

But the problem with this report is that the amount of money you need to make ends meet also varies on where you live.

According to Zillow, Florida’s typical home value is a little more than $398,000. But in bigger cities like Miami, the typical home value is more than $581,000. Fort Lauderdale is more than $530,000.

And according to Zillow, in Downtown Fort Lauderdale is more than $643,000, similar to Miami's Brickell area, with more than $623,000.

That’s where Santos lives and in order to pay for it all, he has a strategy.

“My fixed costs are my house, my car, and my student loans. My needs are food for example. Food, I can do some things expensive some things cheaper, I have to pick my battles with that one,” explained Santos. “And then my wants are things like going out, having a drink with a friend. I can get away with getting a couple beers rather than having a double cocktail. So those are the decisions I make daily.”

Bruno knows he’s better off than most with the minimum wage in Florida, which is currently at $12 per hour. It will go up to $13 in September.

But is the solution to living comfortably more money? Or is it less expensive living costs?

“I do work in finance and I do know the ripple effects of raising salaries, so that will shoot inflation up," Santos said.

“I don’t think it’s so much an issue of salaries as it is expenses.”

Bruno considers that “food is super expensive right now, gas is very expensive, housing is very expensive, the salaries they go up gradually each year…I really think the expenses are too much right now.”

And for those living paycheck to paycheck, they are hoping Florida meets residents where they are at.

“I really believe that salaries going up that would be great because $15 an hour, living here in Miami, it’s not enough. We definitely need that to be increased,” said Parra.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know if that’s going to happen. But the thing is if it goes up then our taxes go up, our mortgages, it’s crazy. It’s a dream for me if we can get better salaries. So, we can have more quality life.”

The one positive of Florida is that it has one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country.