Follow the Money Trail

1. Miss Cellania
   July 12th, 2009 at 6:25 am

   It would also be interesting to see a chart like this for families operating at the poverty level. I think that would be quite educational.

2. clinton robert labombard
   July 12th, 2009 at 8:31 am

   That was one of the first things on my mind, Cellania, when I saw that image: where the hell are these people getting all that money? I live on 15k a year! If I had 63k a year I'd be living on easy street! How many people actually see that kind of money in one year?

3. Edward
   July 12th, 2009 at 9:03 am

   I will believe a graphic like this when it includes state and federal income tax, sales tax as well as sections of the underground economy such as gambling and recreational drugs.

4. CJJ
   July 12th, 2009 at 9:23 am

   While this graphic is very interesting, I wish there was some info included which would explain some of the categories in detail ("expenses, other transportation" and "cash contributions"). What's interesting to me is that while our family is surprisingly similar in terms of demographics to the average "US Consumer Unit" (gross income, family size (I'm counting my son as 1/2), # of earners (I was recently laid off), even age); we don't line up at all with the average expenditures. I don't see anything about child care, savings, hobbies (in our case, pets), or charity (this might be "cash contributions" but I'm not sure).

5. Josh
   July 12th, 2009 at 10:07 am

   My Checkbook on my iPod touch does this. I always put what I buy in categories and when I want to look at what I am spending on it will create a pie chart showing exactly what I spent on. It is called Accounts by SVT Software on the App Store. It completely replaced my checkbook. Also a good app to start budgeting is Ace Budget by the same company.

6. D Bozko
   July 12th, 2009 at 10:38 am

   clinton robert labombard, I make a little more than double what you make and a little more than half of the average listed on the graph. You must be making minimum wage. Are you married? Have kids? How old are you? I haven't made minimum wage since my first job out of high school. I'm making considerably more than that now yet through downsizing and cuts due to the economy I'm making about 20% less than I was a couple of years ago. I spend nothing on alcohol but considerably more on reading. Housing for me is way higher (I live in California) but I spend nothing on tobacco or education. While interesting, CJJ is right, this chart doesn't give enough information to really compare it against ourselves.

7. Dean
   July 12th, 2009 at 10:43 am

   Does it bother anyone that the number one expense here wasn't clearly shown. Taxes are the number one expense but you have to figure it out on your own within the details.

8. Victoria
   July 12th, 2009 at 11:14 am

   Interesting chart, but more interesting would be to see a compilation of three charts. One family unit below the poverty line, an average family, and then a family that makes well about the average. I predict that a rich family would spend the same percentages as the average family. The different group would be the poor family. At minimum wage, you struggle to pay for even the basics.

9. Johnny Cat
   July 12th, 2009 at 11:19 am

   It's outrageous that we spend almost as much on insurance as we do food.

10. mu
    July 12th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    The "Coming Collapse of the Middle Class" talk from Elizabeth Warren (from the Harvard Law School) might give everyone a bit more information to chew on:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A

11. Josh
    July 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    @Dean
    Actually you are correct. Everyone who has a job does not pay attention to the taxes being automatically taken out. I have a couple times added up how much in taxes I pay each month any it is about $450. But still that does not equal my student loan payment each month which is over $300 more than that.

12. Hannibal
    July 12th, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    Excellent point, Dean; and the biggest problem with
    our new President is that he & his cronies think they know better than we do how to spend the money we all make.

    @Johnny Cat: Why is that outrageous? The caption actually says "Insurance, Pensions", which includes Social Security tax payments, which at this point in the life of that program doesn't exactly guarantee an eventual payout upon retirement, so I'd first question why SS taxes are included in that figure. That 10.8 percent also includes retirement savings; most people are far behind where they ought to be for retirement in the first place, so that figure should be higher.

13. clinton robert labombard
    July 13th, 2009 at 12:16 am

    D Bozko, I'm married and she's the one earning the paycheck. She works from home and gets about 20 to 30 hours per week. We aren't suffering, but it's tight. We're both 37 and she has both a degree and gobs of experience, yet she's never made more than 12/hour. Working from home was what she wanted all along and apparently that's enough for her, which is great. I'm happy to see her being able to relax. We don't spend much at all. We know where to get overstock and distressed food. Since neither of us are driving around town all the time (vehicle's broken anyway) we aren't wasting money on fuel. Rent and utilities where we reside are decent. I'm sure there are cheaper places we could live, but there's an expense in moving to a cheaper place we cannot currently afford (we need the vehicle fixed first). All other expenses for us are little drops here and there. Nothing big at all. I'm just saying, on 15k a year we're doing fine... but 63k a year? Good god... I know from experience that isn't the average. Well, maybe if you chopped out the lower-class then maybe, but no way is that the average in the US.

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