Most people assume they’re doing okay financially. Not great, not rich, but okay. They’re wrong.
The average person’s financial situation is far weaker than anyone likes to admit — and the numbers back this up.
Before taxes, the median American household earns $83,730 a year — according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
But that number is mostly fiction when it comes to actual daily life.
After federal, state, and payroll taxes, the Census Bureau puts the real post-tax median at $72,330. That’s before a single bill — rent, food, healthcare, childcare, 401K — is paid.
For a household in a mid-to-high cost city, that’s not a comfortable number. That is a tight number. The kind that doesn’t allow for too many DoorDash adventures. Or any.
And yet…
Household spending regularly exceeds take-home pay. People are spending more than they earn. The gap gets filled with debt — credit cards, buy-now-pay-later schemes, personal loans.
It’s a slow leak that eventually turns into a flood.
The flood: Americans now carry a record $1.3 trillion in credit card debt.
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