If you are wondering why so many Americans are stressed about their finances these days, just look at the numbers.  The Social Security Administration just released national wage statistics for 2022, and the figures that they have given us do not paint a pretty picture at all.  In particular, we should all be deeply alarmed that the median wage earner brought home just $40,847.18 last year.  That breaks down to about $3,400 a month, and that is before taxes.  Needless to say, you cannot live a middle class lifestyle in America today on just $3,400 a month before taxes.  So in most households more than one person must work, and in many cases more than one person is working multiple jobs.

During our current inflation crisis, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and this is squeezing American families like never before.

Right now, the national median price of renting a home is $1,978 a month, and so after paying rent on a home the average worker wouldn’t have much left over for anything else.

Meanwhile, actually owning a home is the most unaffordable that it has been since 1984…

Buying and paying for a house costs Americans more now than at any point in almost four decades. Thanks to strong demand and a limited supply of new homes – even as mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year – it now takes nearly 41% of the median household’s monthly income to afford the payments on a median-priced home, according to research from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The last time housing payments cost that much was in 1984.

Of course it isn’t just the cost of housing that has gone crazy.

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