How Americans Spend Their Money? \ stacker news ~charts_and

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382 sats \ 14 comments \ @IamSINGLE 26 Jan charts_and_numbers

Today, consumer spending represents 68% of U.S. GDP, with much of this used for housing, transportation, and healthcare costs.

More than ever, Americans are using debt and credit cards to fund these purchases. In the second half of 2024, household debt hit a record $17.9 trillion. At the same time, credit card debt surpassed a historic $1 trillion, climbing by 8.3% over the time period.

This graphic shows the average annual expenditures of Americans, based on data from the Consumer Expenditures Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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49 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 26 Jan

Average and median is an important distinction here. The wealthy skew some of these categories more than others.

57 sats \ 3 replies \ @IamSINGLE OP 26 Jan

How much do you agree with the entire side for these expenses?

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 26 Jan

Just eyeballing it, $1k a month on transportation seems very high, as does the personal insurance and pension category (depending on what that includes exactly).

66 sats \ 1 reply \ @IamSINGLE OP 26 Jan

Really, it's way too high, especially when the prices of gas are comparatively cheaper.

13k in transportation alone!!! I'd buy a car, drive it for 120000 in this much money here in India.

Whenever I look at such numbers for US or Europe, I always wonder why would they spend this much? I mean double to ours can be understandable but it's like 100 times more. We'd hardly spend $10 to $20 for a daily commute of 50 miles.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 26 Jan

I think higher income households really skew the transportation numbers. Car insurance is expensive and those households will have three or four fairly expensive vehicles. The cost of gas will be a fairly trivial portion of the costs.

44 sats \ 0 replies \ @flat24 26 Jan

Thank you for sharing this information... it's amazing to see how in the country with the number 1 economy in the world, the average person depends on debt to be able to maintain their lifestyle. A while ago I read an article where they cited a survey that mentioned that the majority of the population does not exceed $500 in net savings, once again the majority depends on the leverage offered by credit cards 💳