Can a Site Reliability Engineer afford to live in Richmond?

Excellent52% of take-home left to save โ€” you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Site Reliability Engineer ยท Richmond
$99,750
Income tax (~29% effective)
United States
โ€“ $28,654
Take-home pay
$5,925/mo
$71,096
Living costs (1 person)
$2,860/mo ยท derived
โ€“ $34,320
Savings potential
$3,065/mo ยท 52% of take-home
$36,776

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

How we calculated this

โ€ข Salary: BLS OEWS 2025 metro-area survey median for Site Reliability Engineer, adjusted for Richmond.

โ€ข Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~29%). 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.