Study shows Rio Rancho has second highest holiday budget in New Mexico

A study by WalletHub showed Rio Rancho has the second highest holiday spending budget in New Mexico.

WalletHub calculated the holiday budget for 558 U.S. cities using five characteristics (population, income, age and the ratio of savings to monthly expenses) to determine the cities with the biggest holiday budgets.

Rio Rancho was second in the state and 174th in the nation with a budget of $1,421.

Three other New Mexico cities made the list — Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, which was No. 166 nationally and tops in NM with a budget of $1,439. Albuquerque was at 411 with a budget of $924, and Las Cruces had the lowest budget in 505th place with a budget of $742.

The calculation is based on WalletHub’s proprietary algorithm, which considers the aforementioned five factors to determine the holiday budget for a particular city.

WalletHub’s algorithm considers somebody to be comfortable enough financially to engage in holiday spending if they have enough emergency savings to cover at least six months of expenses and a debt-to-income ratio smaller than 22% for a renter or 43% for a homeowner. The algorithm adjusted upward or downward depending on a city’s specific characteristics to create a custom estimate.

Palo Alto, California, had the highest budget, according to WalletHub, with $3,596.