I was reading an old post of mine, filed under Marriage, and decided I would go read the original article that started the post off. It’s Bad Schools, Immigration, And The Great Middle-Class Massacre. It talks about a book called The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.
“The average two-income family earns far more today than did the single-breadwinner family of a generation ago. And yet, once they have paid the mortgage, the car payments, the taxes, the health insurance, and the day-care bills, today’s dual-income families have less discretionary—and less money to put away for a rainy day—than the single-income family of a generation ago.”
The two authors note:
“The brunt of the price increases has fallen on families with children. Data from the Federal Reserve show that the median home value for the average childless individual increased by 23 percent between 1983 and 1998 … (adjusted for inflation). For married couples with children, however, housing prices shot up 79 percent—more than three times faster.”
We aren’t paying day care bills, but we do live in a good school district. I think we have been very fiscally responsible with our house, though my husband disagrees. But still we are not making the amount of money we need to live at the level we want to.
Did it do a comparison at all to single income families?
The author of the blog entry only mentions single income families when the authors of the book are talking about “in the old days.” So I don’t think they examined single income families today.
I used to think that we were better off because we don’t have daycare costs. However, now that our insurance is over $15K a year, I am not so sure.