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Do you spend too much? or too litte? How much does the average american spend vs the top 10%?

The Average American Household spends $63,035 and the top 10% spend $145,966.  This data is for 2019 compiled by the BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

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Have you ever wondered if you are spending too much or too little?  This is a very subjective topic because the answers completely depend on circumstances (resources, constraints and preferences).  So to help me answer this question I would generally ask family and friends or research online.  My guess is that if you have done the same you will come back with generally similar conclusions on either judgements that you spend too much and should cut back or support justifying the value in more controversial items (like daily latte).  Although I found this short term cathartic, it never really created an objective framework for me to work with.

So to answer this question, I decided to approach the question differently.  How much do other people spend?   After having the context of where others spend, I can self evaluate if my spending is appropriate.  Luckily, the BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), conducts surveys and publishes the data on their website (https://www.bls.gov/cex/).  The data is broken down in many different dimensions, but I found it useful to focus on the average and top 10% as these provide good references points. 


 

consumer expenditures 2019 bls by spending

A consumer is considered a household (from their website: "A consumer unit consists of any of the following: All members of a particular household who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or other legal arrangements").  The graph was created using python's plotly package https://plotly.com/

After I pulled the data from my checking account, I found my top line data to be in line with my personal expectations, but a bit different on some of the categories as I currently live in New York City, where housing is generally more expensive, but transportation can be lower as a car isn't necessary.

It'll be interesting to evaluate this again over the next few years to see how the pandemic affected spending.

 

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