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The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

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11–20 of 62 posts

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#11
post #2

More on cars than kids? Wow. I am genuinely surprised.

It’s not necessary to spend heavily on kids. They do require a huge amount of time which comes at the opportunity cost of not working. Career sacrifices and daycare is where the big expenses are.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#12
post #4
post #2

More on cars than kids? Wow. I am genuinely surprised.

I look around at my neighbors, my friends... everyone must be doing better off than me OR everyone is just constantly living in debt and considering a car payment a permanent "tax to live" because I see people with new cars (if used, very late model) everywhere. I am terrified of one of my cars breaking (both Toyotas, thankfully, fingers crossed, knock on wood). I dread having to buy another car when these are done.

I suspect a decent percentage of people with newer cars are leasing, since many people shop for a car based on monthly payment without considering the long-term costs.

Also, unrelated heads up since you mention older Toyotas: there's a new recall on Takata airbags from certain 200x models.

https://text.npr.org/2024/01/30/1227923226/toyota-warning-ad...

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#13
> Our greatest ongoing financial priority is our home, with the average cost of a single-family house totaling $428,700,” the study states. “Americans tend to change residences every 15 years, pushing the average amount borrowed on housing to a staggering $1.5 million in a lifetime.”

Why are they counting homes like that? If I sell and buy my investments in my 401k, they don't count it twice.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#15
post #4
post #2

More on cars than kids? Wow. I am genuinely surprised.

I look around at my neighbors, my friends... everyone must be doing better off than me OR everyone is just constantly living in debt and considering a car payment a permanent "tax to live" because I see people with new cars (if used, very late model) everywhere. I am terrified of one of my cars breaking (both Toyotas, thankfully, fingers crossed, knock on wood). I dread having to buy another car when these are done.

As a long time car avoider it truly baffles me the people I see driving while on minimum wage. A lot of people will just drive around either uninsured or by defrauding their insurance hoping this never blows up in their face and well it usually doesn’t.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#16
post #13

> Our greatest ongoing financial priority is our home, with the average cost of a single-family house totaling $428,700,” the study states. “Americans tend to change residences every 15 years, pushing the average amount borrowed on housing to a staggering $1.5 million in a lifetime.” Why are they counting homes like that? If I sell and buy my investments in my 401k, they don't count it twice.

I'm guessing because of the tendency to buy to a payment. People don't generally move to the same price range each time.

Unfortunately, there's a tendency for this to become a hidden robber of wealth over time.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#18
I feel like there are some really good core principles that could be extracted from this. There's a really strong tendency to overstate the importance of repeated expenses and understate the absolutely critical nature of strategic expenses.

The financial world is littered with bad advice in this area.

Maybe it is time for something like a new motley fool to encourage appropriate foolishness.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#19
post #4
post #2

More on cars than kids? Wow. I am genuinely surprised.

I look around at my neighbors, my friends... everyone must be doing better off than me OR everyone is just constantly living in debt and considering a car payment a permanent "tax to live" because I see people with new cars (if used, very late model) everywhere. I am terrified of one of my cars breaking (both Toyotas, thankfully, fingers crossed, knock on wood). I dread having to buy another car when these are done.

Haha, I feel the same way when I compare with my neighbors! I have a “really decent” job in tech, and live comfortably, but my family does it by living in a modest sized home, driving a 15 year old car, 7 year old phone, and basically never taking vacations. But when I go drop my kid off to visit her friends, everyone’s got ginormous homes, some on acreage, beautiful furniture, 0-3 year old cars, all the latest gadgets, photos from last year’s trip to Cancun… and they’re nurses and electricians. Not that I feel I’m better than them because of my career but jeez how do they afford it all???

I’m glad I don’t have the “normal” urge to Keep Up With The Jones’s because I’d be broke!

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#20
post #5

I don't know why this would be unbelievable or "whopping." $3.3M over 60 years of adult life (age 20 to 80) is $55k/year. That's pretty close to the median American income.

I don't think it's very common to work until you are 80 years old though. Also, is the 55K$ figure after taxes?
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