Can a Cloud Security Engineer afford to live in Phoenix?

Excellent64% of take-home left to save โ€” you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Cloud Security Engineer ยท Phoenix
$126,988
Income tax (~28% effective)
United States
โ€“ $35,809
Take-home pay
$7,598/mo
$91,179
Living costs (1 person)
$2,720/mo ยท derived
โ€“ $32,640
Savings potential
$4,878/mo ยท 64% of take-home
$58,539

Single professional, after-tax. Salary โˆ’ tax โˆ’ living costs = what you could save each year.

How we calculated this

โ€ข Salary: BLS OES median for Cloud Security Engineer, adjusted for Phoenix.

โ€ข Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~28%). Official calculator.

โ€ข Living costs: derived from cost-of-living index for a single professional.

Planning estimates, not financial or tax advice. Updated 2026. Your situation will differ.