Can a Site Reliability Engineer afford to live in Phoenix?

Excellent55% of take-home left to save โ€” you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Site Reliability Engineer ยท Phoenix
$97,417
Income tax (~25% effective)
United States
โ€“ $24,589
Take-home pay
$6,069/mo
$72,828
Living costs (1 person)
$2,720/mo ยท derived
โ€“ $32,640
Savings potential
$3,349/mo ยท 55% of take-home
$40,188

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 Site Reliability Engineer, adjusted for Phoenix.

โ€ข Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~25%). 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.