The Path To The Middle Class

Good luck THE PATH T Youl need it O THE MIDDLE CLASS CONGRATULATIONS! You're 22. You've just graduated college. You worked hard and now you have a diploma to show for it. You're on top of the world, right? Unfortunately, though, you're now more than $23,000 in debt. You'll spend the next 10 years paying about $270 per month in student loan payments. Womp womp EDUCATION RANGE You're now 25. You can now renta car. If you had arvy money. Your income is $26.881 a year before taxes. but you have $23,233 in expenditures. .... You're now 28. $3,300 loans You've gotten hitched. Double your household income. $1,200 car payments $9,553 rent Cha-ching! $4,073 food That leaves you $2,648 to spend on dothes, booze, Fido or maybe that special someone. Hope they're cheNp dates $5,107 taxes STEAKI MIDDLE AGE HILLS You're now 32. You finished paying off your student loans! Celebrate with a dnner at Generic Steakhouse. deserve cnly the best Order that hlet mignon You're now 34. Your family is going to get bigger. You're going to have twins. You bought a house! The median cost of a home in the US. is $224.200. The average mortgage payment is $1,403.00 per month, or $17,805 per year Over the next 18 years, you can expect to spend $295,560 por child in order to raise them in a middle-class lifestyle You're now 35. You are now required to live in a suburb and drive a minivan. You and your spoLIse/partner move and both get new jobs that pay more. The average income for 35- to 44-year-olds is $59.613. Your household income is $119.226. $295560 You spend $90.499: EACH $17,805 per year on housing $9180 food for your family So.no two-foe-one deul?Na? $24,740 on the kids $1,200 into college savings for the kids $11,922 into retirement (10 percent of your household taxable income) $3.000 a year for a new car (you need a new minivan for the kids. It costs $20,500) $22,652 on taces If tuition increases at its current rate, it will cost more than $200,000 over You have $28,727 left over to pay for other items such as clothes. gasoline, utilities, daycare, etc. Now it's time to send your kids to college! four years to send each of your kids to a public university You are now 45. You are totally over the hill CONGRATULATIONS! You got a promotion. Your income is now $76.128 before taxes. You are now a middle class American. Took you long enough. MIDDLE CLASS BEACH Craphic by Ben Pirotte O POLITICALFIBER Research by BillDaehler Don't gettoo comfortable. I see Education Range in the distance SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Education, projectstudentdebt.org, Pew Research Center