Did households around age 35 have more money left after ordinary costs?

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Historical Norms point estimates are $1,020 a month in 1989, $1,440 a month in 2007, and $1,520 a month in 2022, all in 2022 dollars. These are descriptive estimates for similarly aged households in three periods, not the same families followed over time. The model-sensitivity comparisons below determine whether an ordering survives the tested assumptions.

The calculation starts with each CEX consumer unit’s income before personal taxes. Income and other personal taxes plus Social Security and Medicare payroll tax are removed before the income-after-all-personal-taxes subtotal. It then subtracts retirement contributions, household-paid health-insurance premiums, life and other non-health personal insurance, direct housing, household operations, utilities and telephone service, separately captured home internet where the source field exists, paid television and video services, groceries, medical care excluding insurance premiums, fuel and other operating transportation costs, apparel, and expected personal-care costs from matched CEX Diary households. The 1989 files do not support a separate home-internet line and cannot establish where or whether a payment was recorded. Historical Norms also uses each year’s observed student-loan payment distribution, vehicle-payment distribution, and household-level observed or imputed paid-childcare spending. The chart reports the weighted household-level median and distribution. The cash-flow table uses additive cohort means so every displayed subtotal reconciles exactly.

Key Comparisons on Breathing Room Index

Did households around age 35 have more money left after ordinary costs?