Can a Security Engineer afford to live in Atlanta?

Excellent61% of take-home left to save — you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Security Engineer · Atlanta
$133,136
Income tax (~32% effective)
United States
– $42,258
Take-home pay
$7,573/mo
$90,878
Living costs (1 person)
$2,940/mo · derived
– $35,280
Savings potential
$4,633/mo · 61% of take-home
$55,598

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

Full salary breakdown →Is this a good salary in Atlanta? →Compare Atlanta with another city →

How we calculated this

• Salary: BLS OES median for Security Engineer, adjusted for Atlanta.

• Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~32%). Official calculator.

• 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.