How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck

This would be great if it showed the piece of the pie that goes to taxes.

How do you figure the income at $63k when the average U.S. income is around $40k?

Right now its all going to the oil companies to pay gas cards each month!

RT
http://www.real-anonymity.pro.tc

The average US family gross income is $63,091? Really? And there is at least one major expense that I don’t see on the chart: Taxes!

An interesting expansion of this would be to make the total a sort of gross figure instead of the net. That would include items spent on the consumers by their employers. For example, the average citizen’s health care costs are largely invisible to them as they are provided as a non-wage benefit, although it is still money spent on their behalf. Likewise, a large chunk of retirement savings are taken out pre-paycheck as well.

Additionally, it would be sort of informative to see the chunk that goes to taxes, but broken down into what it is spent on. It makes government spending more accessible to see the tax dollars per individual broken down by where they go.

This chart does not show the biggest expense. — Where are the Taxes?? Federal, State Income Tax. State, County, City Sales Tax. Property Tax. Etc.

my housing costs are 28% and my health care, which includes insurance, is now 35%, yes more than my home costs and upkeep.

Gerry

You include Social Security, but not taxes, I’m confused? Housing is 16,920 and shelter is 10,023…I’m confused….Life, other personal insurance is one category then another category of just ‘insurance’ and then there is another category of Healthcare…

I’m confusing myself with my comment even…

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Deceptive, since you don’t show what goes for taxes.

Too bad I can’t read it.

What about taxes? Very misleading

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OnLate.com

What a bad crop for so many people to digg..

Oh I LOVE this!!! VERY well done!

Only 1.3 earners per household? I would have thought that number would be higher.

Cool graphic.

Thanks.

Only $118 on reading? =(

Huge amount on the insurance, considering those companies will barely pay out a quarter of that amount to you when you need it.

Is it really that hard to make the image the right size?

Hmm what is missing from the chart??

Taxes!

Interest payments on debt.

In fact they leave out anything to do with any form of tax or debt.

What about taxes?

what about weed?

Was this graph made by a moron? He shows before tax income. Before tax income is meaningless, you can’t spend taxes on things. After subtracting 29% for taxes, fica, etc, that leaves them with 44,794, which is about 5 grand less than they spend. Anyone still curious why the economy is in the crapper?

Too bad there isn’t any statistics on illegal drug purchases.

True, this is an average. Unfortunately healthcare costs for a lot of Americans is much higher than this graph dictates. I’d much rather pay higher taxes and have universal health care than worrying about having an insurance card to get proper care. Even worse not having insurance and going into possibly extreme debt (and possibly bankruptcy). Just my 2cents.

What about pot? everyone buys pot…

The highest is takes.

*taxes

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck – Visual Economicsvisualeconomics.com [...]

I think it would be interesting to redo this with taxes as one of the expenditures (since it is $13,453 or 21% of the total earnings).

Why is that folks don’t think about spending their earnings on taxes like they do on other items?

What. No taxes?

where the hell is tax?

Wow, entertainment accounts for a much smaller percentage than I would’ve guessed.

I am seriously living in the most expensive place in america or something. If an average household income is $63,091…

Mine’s $110,000 before tax and i still feel i am running low on money

window.location = “http://www.google.com/”;

I really spend more than $118 a year on book

thats utter rubbish claiming americans spend a quarter of what they do on booze on books/magazines

ahhhhhhh

the image is too squeezed and its hard to view without hurting my eyes.

Fix it or you’ll lose traffic.

It would be really interesting to see these for different demographics I’m pretty interested to see what the 18-24 crowd spends.

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Taxes really need to be show as well as debt payment other than the home.

i’m confused about the source data here – as of april, 2009, the BLS only has published the 2007 consumer expenditures survey data:

http://www.bls.gov/cex/

but the citation in the lower left-hand corner of your beautiful chart here suggests it is compiled from a more recent survey?

can you please clarify?

thanks very much for sharing the chart!

How useful is this information? If we could get similar charts for each income range, then we’d have something. This chart seems to be so average it is useless for anything meaningful.

Am I reading it wrong?

Where are TAXES? Are to assume the $49,638 is after taxes? If that’s true, where’s SAVINGS outside of pensions/retirement?

nice pic. thanks for share

just to follow up, it looks like you’re mis-stating 2007 data as 2009, check the last column of this table:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ce/standard/y0007/multiyr.txt

its a really interesting information graphic, but its not necessarily a snapshot of expenditures during the current recession.

Showing the percentage going to taxes as part of the outer ring would be more effective to show just how much of our money the government already gets

Wonder what this would look like if the top 1,000 and bottom 1,000 households were removed from the calculation.

[...] 100 bucks a year for reading 2009 July 9 tags: reading by Chris This cool infographic from Visual Economics shows that the average U.S. consumer unit spends $118 a year on reading. [...]

cool pictoral. it’s depressing, though, that the average “US consumer unit” spends nearly 3 times more on cigarettes than books…sad!

I know this is not accurate because there is no allowance for marijuana, which literally hundreds of billions of dollars is spent on marijuana every year, all of it going straight to illegal activities and untaxed since the american public is so unwilling to LEGALIZE IT!!!

I’d be curious how this changes as income goes down, since, theoretically, poorer people should spend less on “extras”. But I have a feeling the percentages don’t change that much. I guess I should be glad that even though I don’t come close to the average income (non-profit pay is low), I am saving $323 a year as a non-smoker

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[...] large size here [...]

you forgot the $4000 for weed…

first post!!

Why does this not show property tax, sales tax, and every other kind of tax? All I see is a tiny little reference to gross.

Taxes of every kind should be included in the graphic! Statistics show that the average middle class spends 50-60% of their income on all the various forms of tax.

OK, why were TAXES left out? You make it seem like the average U.S. consumer unit has $63K to spend when they never see anything near that.

Why would you distort the graph like that? Hard to read.

Where are the Federal Income Tax expenditures? The Income is specified as “before taxes”, so why is the tax bite not shown?

This graph is hard to read.

Wait . . . What?! I make more money than the average family. I feel rich, kinda like a millionaire!!

what about marijuana

Wait . . . What?! I make more than the average american family? Makes me feel rich, like a millionaire!!!

This is very informative, thank you! I was surprised to see that “Reading” made the list of expenditures. I’m also surprised that people spend nearly as much on food out and about as they do at home. Brings to light some of my own habits…

This is misleading. Where are “financial services”? Under housing, for example, how much of your mortgage payment is interests, or your car? Or your discretional spending? You’d find a large chuck of your income going towards paying interests!!!

Where is debt repayment?

Where is the credit card debt? What about spending more than you make? Where is the child support? What about misc. fees?

This can’t possibly be correct. This fictional family doesnt pay any taxes.

-b

What about taxes, bank charges, and savings? This has a lot of interesting information, but we don’t see how much money is left over after expenses including taxes. What are the average bank charges, credit card interest, and non-insurance/private savings like IRAs?

Inaccurate!

Wonder where illegal activity fits into the picture, under other expenses or food/entertainment? If smoking is identified as .7% including supplies I’d guess illegal drugs are statistically significant.

More on smokes than on books. Nice!

Hello.

Interesting how USDOL leaves out taxes from the chart.

I’m definitely not an average consumer unit.

it’s a wonder people have a bad credit and live beyond their means…i wonder why the economy is bad…could there be a connection? hmmmm….

average my ass, learn to mean, median, and mode, this graph is less accurate than the Price is Right’s showdown wheel.

nice graphic. looks pretty accurate.

I find this hard to believe. First of all, there’s no weed category.

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where are the taxes? you have to show the taxes. that’s the biggest bite of all.

[...] There’s a great infographic posted recently on the Visual Economics Blog. Distribution of Spending For The Average US Consumer [...]

Where is the biggest expenditure of all ~ TAXES?

Those numbers will go up under a global warming plan. All part of keeping the poor poor.

I don’t see telephone cost. Most people I know pay near 100 bucks a month for their cell phone plan.

Where are the debt repayment figures?

This would be more realistic if it showed TAXES as well.

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WOW I wish I could say that health care only cost me 5.7%. I actually sat down and figured it all out the other day and well right around 20% of my gross income goes towards healthcare and medical costs. I would love my healthcare costs to be 5.7% as it would allow me to invest in my retirement rather than worrying about how I’m going to fund my retirement.

interesting…

What about paying off debit? such as credit cards.

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Why were taxes left out of this? That distorts the picture significantly. Isn’t it an expenditure, too?

Hmm,
interesting.
Person getting $63k per year. And after tax still has $49K, His wife dont work and he has a kid?
So this person at 48, is making $31 per hour??
10% to retirement??
5.7% to health care?? someone PLZ find this.
House for $1200+ per month..I wish I could afford 1/2 of this stuff.

Can someone tell me where this person lives?
Utilities cost him 7%?? $3430 for the year??

He has a high paying job, Lives in a great house, and his utilities payments are LESS then mine??

This person gets to eat $500 per month in Food?? wow..
and over 60% of those in the USA are making < $10 per hour??
Lets see a chart for all those making less then $15 per hour. Show us HOW a person making less money can make ends meet.

Vehicle purchase??
$3400??
Find someone that will let you pay that cheap.
It will take him 8-10 years to pay off, unless he already paid 1/2 down.

Gas and oil?? do you mean maintenance??
His car is costing him $2400 per year?? I suggest he get a better car.

I would love to find a house that only cost 1/3 of my check including utilities.
You figure that at $10 per hour.
$1600 per month(full time) Take 1/3 out in tax gives a person about $1056 to spend. Lets make him happy and make it $1200(25% tax).
$600 for rent.(if you can find a house/trailer this cheap, good luck)
$300 for utilities.
$225 for food.
$1125, and we hope we can buy gas for the car.

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

Well Tobacco is way under stated with Cigarettes @ $50 a carton in South Florida!

This chart shows $63,091 before taxes and $49,638 expenditures. Does that mean that $13,453 is taxes? Or is it savings?

Neither one of those major categories are noted. Of course, we don’t save very much and we are taxed quite well. Perhaps showing taxes would make the chart less eye-pleasing…

This chart is pretty misleading. According to the figures in the middle, this “consumer unit” paid $13,453 in taxes, which is not reflected in the chart. That is second only to Housing in expenditures.

And of course, it would be even worse (possibly exceeding housing) if you also included the FICA tax employers pay for you.

And speaking of employer expenditures: this chart also does not include what they pay for the average consumer.

So, taxes are exluded, and the portion of spent on healthcare is too small. So, what good is this chart?

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

Where are taxes, or are taxes included on this in other costs? As a renter, withheld taxes are my largest expenditure out of every paycheck, usually 4x more than my rent or any other bills. With a mortgage, my taxes amount to roughly what I spend monthly on my mortgage, including principal, interest, home owners insurance, and PMI.

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

So what is the average spending on taxes? (I note that Social Security is represented as an expense, what about income tax, or Medicaid withholding?) Does income before taxes include imputed income for things like employer-provided healthcare?

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[...] THE AVERAGE AMERICAN BUDGET This handy graphic of what we spend on what is pretty surprising—except for the part about what we spend to read. [...]

I must be a frigin drunk. I spend 3 times on the avg budget for alcohol. That does not include alcohol purchased at restaurants. Brbbbbb.

pretty tough making 35,000 a year, raising two kids, no welfare of any kind, and can’t get child support.

10 % on Insurance/ 12.4 % on Food !!

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

Where does it show taxes? haha

34.1 + 17.6 + 12.4 + 10.8 + 3.8 + 1.2 + 5.7 = Living to Work (85.6%)

Only 14.4% of your time is actually yours.

Funny! So, as I understood, they get $50,000 a year? It’s an astronomical figure to our country.

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tobaco is not average duh>>

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Very cool and interesting diagram. Easy to understand…pretty surprising how little is spent on education and reading.

Stuart Stirling

Someone should add taxes to this. I think it would be shocking.

Someone should add taxes (State, Local, Federal, SS, Medicare) to this. Would be shocking.

[...] Interesting diagram illustrating the breakdown of an ‘average’ American household’s annual spending. [...]

I keep looking for the “savings” item. And looking. And looking. Between “Income before taxes” and “Average Annual Expenditures”, the difference is both taxes and savings. How much is savings? Pitifully small, if not zero, isn’t it?

I have been digging through the Dept. of Labor’s website and am unable to find the source of these numbers. Most likely my error, so…could you please amend this page with a link to the source document[s].

Thanks

Papa Ray
West Texas

Nice graph. However, you’re omitting the 50+% slice titled “Taxes of all types.” You know, the obvious ones like income, sales and property taxes, the less-obvious ones like taxes built into the prices of gasoline, liquor, airline tickets and utility costs, as well as the completely invisible taxes such as those passed along in the cost of goods and services.

If so many taxes weren’t hidden and if the American public were aware of the true tax burden, I’m sure our worthless representatives would be forced to remove their snouts from the trough, or be removed Marie-Antoinette style from office.

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

[...] how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments. How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [Visual Economics [...]

I am curious on where this information came from. If this is the average family then why are we in financial crisis. This looks like everyone lives within their financial means which is not true.

The healthcare fraction is out-of-whack! This “average american” must be Canadian with excellent health insurance that gets paid by the government.

Our family pays $700/month out-of-pocket for health insurance for the two members who are not employed.

Even if health care is paid by the employer it should show up on this chart because it ain’t paid by “taxes.”

It would be nice to see a similar chart for smokers and people with kids in college. I thought healthcare and insurance would be more, too…

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [...]

Where’s interest? Or is interest factored into these categories?

boner jams

You don’t think there’s a 0.1-1.0% of income spent on drugs other than tobacco and alcohol? Consumption occurs in other places than registered businesses in mass. Skewed.

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[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [...]

Nice breakdown.

It’s too bad the Dept. of Labor neglected to include local, state, and federal taxes in this chart. But then again that might be too scary.

Convenient, how the $13,453 tax figure got kinda lost in the middle. Cowards.
.
stencil

It’s interesting to see the numbers and try to figure out how you compare to ‘average’
One of the most amazing numbers to me is that we spend almost as much on insurance as we do on food!
crazy.
I know the 2% on reading and education is far lower than most of the people I hang with.

No service on unsecured debt? Finance charges? Something’s out of whack here. Finance charges should be extracted from all of these items and represented separately.

Notice what figure isn’t included in that ring?

Taxes, of which the U.S. Consumer Unit pays $13,453 a year on average. A figure bigger than everything but housing.

I wonder why they left that out?

Not….

where are taxes?

Quite a bit spent on shelter…

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Interesting breakdown, but even more telling is the hidden fact that the 2nd largest spending category – taxes – is conveniently tucked away in the “before taxes” total. In fact, that percentage should be even larger if you factor in confiscatory taxes that are a big part of every one of the other spending categories. Just my two cents’ worth…

Why does this not show taxes.
Social Security, Income Tax, Sales Tax, Property tax? Big, Big chunk of our income.

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I suppose you can’t expect anything less from a bureaucratic extension of our legislative branch. Notice the focus of expenditures by the average US consumer ignores the amount of taxes paid as a % of total income. It’s a scary number girls and boys, and they really don’t want you to think about that.

This is sad, Almost half of our paychecks goes to gas and housing.

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Obviously this is not talking about New York City right? Because then the annual income before taxes should be lowered to the expenditure and the expenditure should be raised to the income before taxes.

Interesting graph. Unfortunately, you have to dig to discover the number one item and that is taxes. I think the fact that it’s not clear here is misleading.

$10,000 a year on housing? Is this a studio apartment in Ohio?

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No income tax? Sales tax? Property tax?

It really seems obvious to me that that there is too little spent on education and way too much spent on housing and transportation. With todays technology we surely could reduce these things. I just built a website for a guy that started selling ductless heat pumps, it is amazing the energy savings alone that current technology offers.

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2.5 people, and only $118 on reading? The year’s only halfway over, and I’ve spent…well jeez, I spent more than that in the last month on books!

It’d be fascinating to see charts like this for each of the quintiles.

The problem with this graph is that it doesn’t show other incomes. A family with a only $15,000 probably spends more like 75% of their income on housing. Which should be shocking.

A lot of Americans feel they should save but that the opportunity to do so is not available to them personally.

It really is all about how you trick yourself to save, avoid being taken advantage of by the greedy rich (seriously, reducing and eliminating debt and pushing yourself to invest in assets that produce more of the same kind of assets just because you own them. We have a FREE Facebook group you can join “Live The Lifestyle Your Family Deserves,” and two FREE blogs: http://www.stickyasset.com/blog and http://www.boostmywealth.wordpress.com. You can also make an investment in yourself by purchasing “Hot To Survive Any Financial Crisis” for only $4.95 (for a limited time only) at http://www.middleclassmoney.com.

Thank you.

Loyd Ford

Dumbest graphic ever – what about taxes?!? I can see why the Dept of Labor (a gov’t entity) didn’t include the total amount of taxes (personal income, state, gas taxes, fees, etc.) that we pay, because it would just show how much the government takes away from our hard-earned money. The largest expenditure you have is likely taxes. Not housing, not food, not personal care… taxes my friend, and this graphic is just a way to sell you on eventual tax increases for everybody! Keep in mind that tax increases aren’t limited to personal income taxes…. they are the taxes and fees put on things we buy every day.

Thanks for publishing this. I can use this in my subject, sociology.

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [...]

I’d rather wish the 13,453 in taxes was part of the larger circle… dropping it from the overall graph was a disapointment.

no taxes huh ?

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There are lots of old people in this country and their numbers are growing, to say the least.

If there was to be another chart that shows the ‘AARP’ contingent, much more could be learned from such a chart.

Begin with those who are retired.

Just an idea. Thanks.

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this is misleading as it it based on after-tax income. redo the graphic on a gross income basis which will show how one-third or more of gross dollars go to taxes.

it’s too small

It would be interesting to see how much of the spending in each category is taxes; there are a lot buried in there

I notice INCOME TAXES, and SALES TAX isn’t on this? Show the taxes so people can really see what they spend the majority of their money on.

[...] how average consumer spend their paycheck Published July 13, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment Tags: economic http://www.visualeconomics.com/how-the-average-us-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/ [...]

Very interesting that transportation & housing make up 50% of a family’s monthly expenditures. If people would scale down their “wants” into “needs” instead, they would see a significant savings each month–and they would actually be able to SAVE each month! Imagine that concept–saving money!!

Taxes!!! No where does it show taxes. Taxes on the gas, oil, lipstick. Taxes on your property, your pension, your kids schooling.

Average PRE-TAX income = $63,091 – Average expenditures of $49,638 = YOU ARE UNDERWATER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Housing: Affordability Index= $63,091 x 2.6 = $164,036.6. Which means that everyone in this category that is paying for a mortgage greater than this amount is UNDERWATER.

If this graph and these figures do not show you the trouble that we are in, nothing will.

Do us all a favor…Now put how much is lost to ALL taxes!

I thought i’d compare a few of our expenses to these. What was glaringly impossible was the food expense for 2.3 people at $66 per week. Impossible. So then it’s hard to see if any of the other #’s are valid either.

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How could a graph of this type exclude what the avg US Consumer spends on local, state and Federal Taxes?? I believe that amount would exceed the total cost of shelter/housing….

How is spending 5.7% of our income on healthcare is a crisis?

Where’s ‘taxes’ — and all those other state ‘fees’ too — on your pretty little chart? Why not make it clear and make that category ‘visual’ too? Are you afraid to show people what 30% of their gross pay looks like along side of the rest of their spending? Or are you just picking on the other areas like housing, transportation, etc. because that’s what benefits some particular ‘interest’? What exactly is the purpose of this chart?

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You should have included the relative outlay in taxes.

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Whoa….check out this page…hmmm, and I thought this was only for the kids

I really like the layout and colors that you chose for this website! It certainly is incredible!

How to stimulate the economy. Everyone must let your homes go into foreclosure and then buy them back again in two years for 10 cents on the dollar.

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Why aren’t TAXES shown as a chunk (percent) of the wheel?

Where is the biggest part of our budget, childcare? Not everybody needs it, of course, but for those who do it is significant.

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Fascinating data, beautiful chart, but very hard to interpret the ratios and relative amounts. I have posted an alternative presentation format at http://www.freakalytics.com/aas

Best,
Stephen

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I did know that US citizens, do not spend much on holidays or vacations…

but I did not know that they are spending nothing???

It is me or the chart and nobody is missing money spend on holidays?

Best, Roman from Switzerland, in europe, the old continent.

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I think the alcohol consumption a year is wrong, I spend half that in one night haha..

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It is curious why all taxes are not included in this chart. At first I thought it was just because this was based on take-home paychecks, but then I saw the “pensions and Social Security” category — and those are also taken out of gross earnings, so it cannot be justa net pay-based chart.

Let me re-read your post again GRS, but do you know what exactly “household operations” covers?

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A consumer unit? What happened to “Family”?

[...] national figures for comparison. Last week, a site called Visual Economics posted a chart showing where the average U.S. consumer spends her money. Here’s the chart in question, which has been making the rounds of the internet: Click to open at [...]

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck – Visual Economics (tags: finance demographics statistics economy budget) [...]

[...] Now let’s see how close to average we were (thanks to Get Rich Slowly for this chart, who got it from Visual Economics).  [...]

Um…Hello? Where’s the category for Taxes???

That’s a pretty big slice of the pie to just ignore, don’t you think?

[...] Source visualeconomics [...]

This is not a average income. No way! If the average person made this kind of money there would be no poverty. Almost $512.00 per month for food for one person? Not if you are a elder, living on a fixed income.

In my financial planning practice, people ask me all the time how their expenditures compare to the “typical” American. This graphic helps answer the question and provides a baseline for comparison. However, at the end of the day, what really matters to people is how their spending matches with their values. We recommend an approach called “Values Based Budgeting.” You can learn more about it at http://www.SmartNestEgg.com.

[...] Posted on July 15, 2009 by themotherlist Check out this post on Get Rich Slowly here. Via Get Rich Slowly – Click on image to see full [...]

[...] el blog Visual Economics nos llega este interesante gráfico que muestra como los consumidores norteamericanos gasta su [...]

[...] http://www.visualeconomics.com/how-the-average-us-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/ [...]

[...] Visual Economics This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 4:38 pmand is filed under Personal [...]

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“Taxes” should be represented on the wheel as another giant slice of the pie rather than just divvying up “disposable income”.

How about redoing such a great graphic with the taxes included? Don’t treat the tax obligation as either a given or an afterthought. Each payer certainly ‘spends’ it even if withholding is mandatory.

[...] the image to have it enlarged, for easier viewing.via Visual Economics VN:F [1.5.4_809]Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast) Share the [...]

[...] graph on How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck Not that there is no bucket for savings (other than the slice dedicated to pensions, which I assume [...]

This is great! I would further like to see how much money is spent on sales taxes, social security, and other government taxes/fees even parking tickets. To make this really interesting we should examine not only what consumers spend money on but their bang for buck. A publicly funded service like health care in Canada, could be compared to a partly public service like American health care. How much money is spent on advertising and what is the outcome?

[...] Visual Economics: How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck Interesting, but not particularly surprising in most areas. [...]

Very interesting and great graphics!

This chart, while pretty, is also pretty useless to indicate anything easily. How about a stacked bar chart so we can see, side by side how much each spending element compares to the other? How about another chart showing spending for families making a million or more and another for families at the poverty level, so we might understand the startling differences in class/wealth in this nation? Other than eye candy this chart provides little real information and what it does show is hard to discern without spending a great deal of time ferreting it out.

This looks more like propaganda than information.

Where in Gods green earth can I get healthcare for $2853.00 per year for 2.5 people?

[...] How the Average US Consumer Spends Their Income [...]

[...] Where Does the Money Go? [...]

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck — this is an interesting chart. We’re by no means average (we’ve never carried a [...]

Congratulations on finally setting up your site. I am sure the website will become a internet legend

Where are income taxes? That takes about 40% at a federal and state level in california, not including all the taxes on cable, utilities, sales tax etc. Americans are broke!

[...] how the “average” American spends their hard earn money each year.   Here’s a link to the website (if you are having trouble reading the details of this graphic.)  Most interesting (and telling) [...]

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck – Visual Economics (tags: economics finance visualization data design graphics statistics culture) [...]

Please include federal and state taxes.

Nice fantasy world. Where are the taxes?

Most people would absolutely freak if they realized how much they pay in taxes now.

This is my first visit. What an excellent graphic! Thanks for sharing.

Ha, look at how much is spent on books.

Where are the taxes? Fed and state, income sales and other?

Where are taxes? Why not included on this graph?

Federal & state? Income, sales, and other?

how come there are no TAXES on this chart!?

Wow… Most people I know would kill to make $63,091 a year. That’s average? Maybe we should take a look at our poverty levels.

Where are the taxes???

$1800 on clothes? Per year? Time to get rid of my sweats and move into the stylish disco attire, I hear that it’s making a comeback. Maybe if I made $63,000 a year I could afford a haircut too.

[...] How the average U.S. consumer spends their paycheck. [...]

@Mark: average age is almost 50 and many times the average earned was by 2 or more people.

I think “reading” should have been closer to “education.” Some education is by personal choice.

Overall, these numbers are not where I would have pictured them, thanks for the eye-opener!

Great graphic…
Income before taxes $63,091, income tax is say 32%.
But average expenses are $49,638.

That leaves a take home of about $42,901.

That means average americans live $6,737 beyond their means each year with no 401k, retirement savings, or a savings account buffer at avg age 48?

I would be concerned here.

That’s for a consumer “unit” Mark – husband and wife not per person.

The data doesn’t seem to be very accurate. It doens’t say how or where the survey was conducted. It doesn’t say how many people were surveyed, from the information this seems to only apply to middle aged couples or families. I am a college student and alot of these categories do not apply to me, or others my age.

I don’t think the data seems very accurate. It doesn’t tell where or how the survey was conducted or who was surveyed. It seems to only apply to middle aged familes and couples. I am a college student and I know my income is distributed completely different than what is shown and I’m sure it’s the same for others my age.

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The $63,091 is actually income for a family before taxes (in this case 1.3 people are earners)

Housing, healthcare, entertainment and transportaion are the top four things the average consumer spends their money on. Personally, I think its ridiculous that healthcare is in the top four. This may souond silly, but I think its great that entertainment ranks so high because it helps to keep the economy positive. Additionally, I find it hard to believe that so much money is spent on such silly things.

I think it is interesting that we spend more money on transportation than food. I understand that cars obviously cost more than a meal, but when you look at the necessity of both of them it is interesting. Maybe more people should take advantage of cheaper transportation such as public buses. This looks like the biggest area we could save money in (besides not smokin or doing leisure activities.)

I’m also surprised that entertainment is further down the chart and above healthcare than which ones people really value first. Entertainment has brought a huge positive influence on our economy and I thought it would be higher

Other than the basic needs of a household (i.e. food, shelter, clothing), I can’t believe how much is spent on misc. things such as tobacco, alcohol & personal products rather than education or books. Healthcare is quite outrageous as well. I personally had to visit the cardiologist to find out what was wrong with me and that one trip which took about 1/2 an hour cost me over $2,000! Another thing that is surprising is how much is spent on food away from home. It’s pretty close to being equal to what’s spent for food at home. I would venture to guess that this graph was completely different a year ago when gas was outrageous and people were REALLY feeling the crunch.

Entertainment and food away from home take up a decent part of all household expeditures. I am surprised to not see a category specifically for travel/tourism, but entertainment and restaurant spending would be included in tourism spending. Household’s use their disposable income on things like entertainment and food away from home. Much of the rest of the chart shows what a household would spend on their mandatory costs.

Is average income from that only one person’s income?? And it said $63,091 is income before taxes. Where can we found that info? I mention that taxes are biggest expenses. Anyway, housing and transportation is top two of monetary expenditures. Also, healthcare and insurance show large percent of the chart. (but, should healthcare category include insurance?)

[...] Visual Economics’s infographic of How The Average U.S Conumer Spends Their Paycheck=Priceless [...]

I wouldn’t mind seeing this converted to a bar chart, with a similar bar chart from ten years ago to compare next to it. I’m interested to see if/how the increase in demand of “necessities” has increased their cost and our spending. Was our expenditure overage this high? And how high of a percentage were housing and food costs comparatively? Is the problem that we need to spend less on recreation or that certain markets just need to bring themselves back to equilibrium?

It’s really no surprise. The survey percentages seem to be right in line with my budgetary expenditures. The percentages are almost a direct mirror image of my budget breakdown. The top 4-5 highest to lowest expenditures are exactly what must be spent in order to survive from several different angles: Pshchologically, physiologically, economically, and legally.

This is a very suspect graph. Who responded to these surveys? How were the surveys distributed? I can sort of see where the information on taxes is supposed to be, but there is no listing whatsoever on how much these “individuals” are putting into savings. I also find the percentage difference between “food at home” and “food away from home” to be a little suspect.

Well, I guess tourism falls under entertainment and miscenllaneous, but it’s interesting to me that travel/vacation is not a category itself because of how much it brings in. I think this chart is off for people in my age bracket. Especially seeing the alcohol and tobacco percentages so low, I can guarantee if you isolated Broadripple and made this chart things would be very different. I think the idea opportunity cost has probably changed dramatically in the last 10 years in what people justify spending money on anymore, so as a whole, these percentages are probably more on point than I’m thinking.

I would have thought that a higher percentage would be dedicated to apparel and services…but to see that apparel and services is more important or has a higher emphasis then education is somewhat embarrassing. Also I am wondering how this information was retrieved, did it come from a survey in a specific geographic, focus groups, or interviews?

[...] national figures for comparison. Last week, a site called Visual Economics posted a chart showing where the average U.S. consumer spends her money. Here’s the chart in question, which has been making the rounds of the internet: Click to [...]

Off the wall statistics: why the different numbers for “housing” and “shelter”??? What the heck is ‘housekeeping supplies’ and ‘household operations’?? I haven’t bought that much Windex in my life, and a vacuum cleaner is a once in a while thing, also.. as others have pointed out, I see no taxes cited. As far as ‘furnishings’ go, once you’ve bought a sofa, you have it for a long while, unless you’re a slave to fashion (see ‘apparel and services’)…yes, I mean you pea brains who get your nails done… Ditto buying other furniture, get a used crib and try Freecycle for crying out loud. Also, the listing for ‘cash donations’ is a hoot. Everyone claims this for tax purposes but few actually do it. And what about smokes and brewskys? Not all of us imbibe and stink…

The good thing about this is there’s a lot of play in these numbers. After the economic SHTF, we’ll all be able to downscale to nights in front of the radio, home cooked soup and bread and realizing the values of a good book and saving money.

Oh, and all you non book readers out there- SHAME ON YOU! It’s morons like you who gave us the Bush years!

[...] Visualeconomics.com recently posted a visual display of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that shows where each U.S. household spends their money. Sadly, but not surprisingly, an amazing 51.7% of $49,638 in annual expenses came from two areas:  [...]

[...] graph of where an average U.S. consumer spends her annual paycheck. While there are costs which I do not have (who ever spent more on clothes than books? Not [...]

I agree with Peter T. Childcare takes a huge chunk out of your budget. It should be there.

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The taxes seem to be included as the difference between the “Income before taxes” ($63,091) and the “Average Annual Expenditures” ($49,638), which comes out to $13,453 (21%).

[...] on this post apparently it goes in these places (I had a hard time reading the infographic so I made a simple [...]

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck | [...]

That’s prob. for people who are almost 50. I think I’ve spent 98% on education and 1% on food + housing for the past many years…

Where is:
1. the tv cable bill.
2. internet connection.
3. Home phone.
Most people I talk with spend between $150 to over $200 a month on these three items.
$1800 annually is more than books, tobacco and alcohol.
What about:
1. CELL PHONE:
Anyone over the age of 5 has to have one.
I know those bills run between $50 and $200 per month per user even the ones disguised as $9.99 family plan.
What about:
1. Illegal drugs,
Marijuana? You listen to the President and everyone does it. I’m sure it’s not free, yet. Until the tax payers start being forced to subsidize it.
2. Cocaine.
And I’m not kidding, 50% of the people I try to hire can’t pass a drug test.
3. and illegal perscriptions?
That’s all I have time for.
SteveB

My household income is half that. I’d love to see how out of whack my graph would look like.

I would like to see how CA differs from the rest of the nation in this respect. I would love to spend that small of a percentage on housing! I find the low amount spent on books very depressing. I spend at least 5x that (not including textbooks).

Seeing that apparel and services is higher than education is suprising to me too. I guess not that many people are currently in college, and the lower levels of schooling are not that expensive for parents.

It would be nice if there were some way to adjust for real value of commodities. The segment for expenditures on reading looks dismal until you consider that many books are very inexpensive, I have a large library in which the average book price is less than $20. Unless you’re buying overpriced bestselling dross new at Barnes and Noble there’s just no way the cost is going to compare to other needed things. College textbooks are expensive, yes, but once the semester ends the price drops by over half. If you’re learning on your own you don’t have to have the latest most expensive edition, you can buy one from last year for $12. Used bookstores are everywhere.

as a college student, most of my income goes to books, the rest goes to alcohol.

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck | [...]

It sounds like we need to get all of you intelligent people to consider sharing your knowledge to work on solutions to America’s economic priorities. Too many liberals don’t give back to the academic and productive society, and conservatives are just ignorantly wasteful. Healthcare, defense, energy, shelter and food should not be subsidized. If we lived in a true cradle-to-grave free market economy, we would be back to weeding out the weak for a sustainable world with fewer humans.

Take a look at the actual data for more info.
This is a .gov site, and the data go back to 1984.

Let’s hope the low reading expenditure is a product of library use!

P.S. This survey was taken in 2007.
Telephone use is under utilities.
Health insurance is under Health care.
Shelter includes property taxes and interest.

http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxstnd.htm

[...] How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck [...]

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Good question: This is after taxes? That may consume half of what you make in some cases.

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[...] image was created by Visual Economics, using information taken from the Consumer Expenditure Survey by the U.S. Department of [...]

[...] “Where Does the Money Go?” [VisualEconomics via FlowingData] [...]

Credit cards? That’s a HUGE part of the monthly budget 10-40 percent for some people. Does education include student loans? That’s a big expense, too.

This makes me feel bad for surviving on $20k a year take-home.

[...] How the Average US Consumer Spends (VisualEconomics) [...]

Id love to know where they are shopping for food considering if you break down that amount its less than 120 bucks a week for 2.5 people lol

[...] VisualEconomics.com has created an interesting graphic using U.S. Department of Labor statistics to show how average American consumers use their yearly paychecks. [...]

*I* think it’s funny how commenters see a bunch of statistics and pick out the ones that support their personal agenda

HA. I spent my “average expenditure” on books in one sitting a few days ago. Funny chart, but like many charts…not even close to for everyone.

(Hey Zanna, there are more books in the world than just cheap paperbacks and textbooks. Try moving out of your usual sections next time.

Everyone who says “WHERE ARE THE TAXES?!” should look at the “Income Level Before Taxes,” and include your Social Security payments as a pension.

people here clearly don’t read too much, the reading comprehension is pretty low.

The stats are about the least suspect stats you will ever find.

Look in the lower left hand corner – this is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is part of the US Department of Labor. There is no source of statistical information on what’s going on in the US economy than the information that is gathered by the Department of Labor.

2. This is what the AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD in the United States sells. Your personal experience may, and quite likely will, vary significantly from the mean. This is the average for every household in America, whether your household is you alone, or you, your spouse, your parents, your children, the maid, the guy who lived down the street and is crashing out on the couch, whatever.

This is a big country. People on the Pacific Coast tend to pay a lot more for housing than some bumpkin in Kearney Nebraska. People in Texas waste a lot more money on transportation than someone in New York City who takes the subway every day.

Taxes? The chart clearly says average pay before taxes. So, taxes likely eats up more, if not all (or maybe even more than all with stagnant wages over the past 8 years plus massive consumer debt)of the gap between that $63k and the $49k in household expenditures. The Average American family has had a negative savings rate for the several years leading up to the financial collapse in 2008.

Oh, and “shelter” vs “housing” – well, you’d probably have to check the DoL’s website and the survey from which the graphic was derived, but I’d guess that’s the gap between renting (Shelter) and owning (Housing).

The effect of the bubble is that the cost of owning grew massively out of wack with renting.

Two earners, close to 50 making 65 K combined? I know that region plays into it, but 65K isnt a living wage. In your 20s maybe, but by age 50 you should be making enough to save up for your funeral. Ask Lovey, my wife, she’ll tell you.

See that 1.9 vehicles? The .9 is my 1980 Dodge Ram up on blocks in front of mah trailer.

I saw where several comments noted they thought some of this data was suspect. Could be but the important thing to remember is this is supposedly averages from a national sample. I just took a quick trip over to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistic Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE)page (where this data originates) and at quick glance much of what is in this chart matches what the Department of Labor’s tables show. The interesting thing to remember is that survey’s of this magnitude are often way behind with culture. The Dept of Labor’s site says these latest findings are actually from 2007. http://www.bls.gov/cex/

Typical.

While I have my doubts to the accuracy of the sources…Assuming a 28% tax bracket their take home is $45,425 and they spend $49K.

Looks like the hole is getting deeper honey, keep digging or we’ll never get out!!

It seems health expenses are underreported. The $2853 for health care isn’t large enough to cover the health insurance premiums for 2.3 people (or even one). Since most employers pay for health insurance the 63k income before taxes probably doesn’t include it.

IDIOT THE 63000 IS FOR 2 ADULTS.

Consumer Unit == Family, not an individual.

You guys need to read. (Title is a bit misleading though)

It’s an average, so it takes into account regional commodity pricing variations. What you want is a margin to show the breadth of the variation.

For those of you with the other questions about “why isn’t ____ included…,” go to DOL’s website and look at the survey methodology! God forbid you have to chew your own food.

How much do we spend on taxes. How come that amount is not included?

[...] next pie chart comes from visualeconomics. It is a giant complex oval donut that will tell you how you are spending your money. If time is [...]

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It’s said that US economy is fueled by consumers’ spending, i doubt how much average American’s spend?

It looks as though the typical American spends twice as much on entertaining themselves as they do to giving to others. I wonder if it was always that way.

[...] see the problem with this, view this graph at Visual Economics showing how consumers spend their incomes. The graph makes it immediately clear that consumers [...]

[...] see the problem with this, view this graph at Visual Economics showing how consumers spend their incomes. The graph makes it immediately clear that consumers [...]

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Interesting chart. I would probably cut down on the entertainment portion just a bit…

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[...] a surprising look at how the average American spends a paycheck, check out the “Where does the money go?” graphic at Visual [...]

[...] Average US household: (source) [...]

[...] early 2009, the average U.S. family earned $63,000 a year before taxes. That family had 2.5 people in the home and 1.3 wage earners. Given that your family has 2 people [...]

[...] early 2009, the average U.S. family earned $63,000 a year before taxes. That family had 2.5 people in the home and 1.3 wage earners. Given that your family has 2 people [...]

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[...] early 2009, the average U.S. family earned $63,000 a year before taxes. That family had 2.5 people in the home and 1.3 wage earners. Given that your family has 2 people [...]

[...] early 2009, the average U.S. family earned $63,000 a year before taxes. That family had 2.5 people in the home and 1.3 wage earners. Given that your family has 2 people [...]

deficit spending?

How much of the pie is credit card debt? both total debt and how much is “lost” in interest rate charges?

More expensive than my location! If you think you are running low on $, try scraping by on 36K less. Married, 1 child, single income.

No joke! Two parents, one income, two kids, $30k. We spend a good third of our income on food. No credit card debt, no debt at all, but no assets, either.

A library card costs $0.00.

Yes, they failed to mention that big chunk of the pie. If that was the case we would be able to do more.

If you watch the video, you’d see that the average tax is just under 15% of the gross income, which would bring the after-tax income to around $53,627.35, which is almost 4 grand more then the average expenditures.

I live in Texas. My property tax is $16,429 a year.

You are spending too much. I have 7 children (1 in Med school), we earn 72,000 (before taxes,)

We have a 2,400 sq ft home with a beautiful valley view (no lights, people or buildings). We're able to save up to 30,000 a year if we choose to.

So yes, you spend too much. Our housing at $800 per month is 12% of our income. My suggestion is to look at the chart pie and address the big pieces first.

My guess is you spend way too much on housing and transportation. You probably drive an expensive car and commute. We use 1 car and live 1 mile from work. You could do the same if you chose to. You have to make and ego vs spending decision. Personally my ego does well knowing that we're building our nest egg by big chunks. Both our cars are paid off.

We're into healthy food, so it is mostly veggies, fruit, beans and chicken. Very inexpensive. I'll bet you eat out a lot. 2 people eating $12 lunches each day adds up to $7,500 per year. That is 4 trips to Cancun. Its all about your ego and what you decide.

Good luck my friend.

This is way off. I'm sure it is some kind of Government double hink, brought to you from the same folks who say inflation only runs 2%!

Where is credit card debt? My understanding is that the average person spend $2,000 a year in interest. And who could believe that only $800 is spent on Misc? Entertainment $2,700? At $80 for cable that is 960, are you saying 1,800 or $1.64 per day per person on entertainment? And lastly, where the heck is the cell phone or any phone or internet? Is this from 1990?

I'm glad your spending habits worked for you. However, you sound pretty condescending. I agree that your spending sacrifices have afforded you much, but depending on where this person lives, it may not be possible to cut on housing, or transportation if the gas prices are high. Luxures would be the only place he can cut.. Its not always all about ego. You made a judgement without knowing much. I appreciate knowing how far your money went with so little, but to call someone egocentrical based on just that, is jumping to conclusions.

your a douche bag to the max… why don't you go blow your ego and eat more veggies and then have someone else bone your wife cuz your too busy worried about how other people spend their money.

How about you take into consideration that some people don't make as much money and have to spend more money on certain expenses than other people. For example: You have to commute 1.5 hours to work everyday, therefore you're forced to buy a car that is dependable and costs a little more than your fucking bike or 1990 subaru.

Douche

My husband and I get our insurance for under $150/month. His employer pays the rest. The hourly rate of pay may be lower and the union voted to no raise next year (even tho it was in the contract), but we get to keep the insurance at the same rate in consideration for the negotiation.

Wow! You nailed this one friend! Good for you!!! That's awesome! I am wanting to make these changes myself. It truly is all about choices and that's the only thing we were really born with and it's all we'll have in the end!!! : )

God bless

How do THESE comments get past the “moderator”?

You're probably right as this is equivalent to like 2 people going to the movies every week. That's a lot of entertainment! : ) However, this looks like it may include any vacation as well. So in that case it could be low depending on where/what you do for vacation (and if it's for 2 or family of 4 in my case), etc.

That's hilarious only don't ya know that alcohol and learning don't go together – alcohol discintegrates your brain silly.

Take care of yourself and I wish you well in school.

think that average consumers have an acceptable level of Financial iq, as their incomes are greater than its costs and how many with a budget established which helps them know how much to allocate to each of your needs.

I thought that American families spend much on food for the simple fact that fast food is a habit for them, I also surprised not to invest in education, in clothing, gifts and entertainment as it appears very splendid ; in their personal care because I agree very much neglected in this respect perhaps out of laziness. It is rare not vicious because it has a certain image of his behavior, that the economy is stable money quiz, but it is surprising that they care more for household expenses and transportation, which means that at least have with some values.

I thought Americans were a spender because, as in the United States there are many clothes shops and all the best brands believing they spent as much on clothes and entertainment, but because I'm wrong because they are more concerned about welfare itself as it is to see their future and spend more on investing at home and I think this very well because it is a heritage to them and then later for their children something that here in Mexico do not think because we spend more on clothing, entertainment and more.
Another thing that Americans are spending more on food, transport and secure for when they withdraw from their work that is very good.
I thought that they ate a lot of the cigar but very few actually investing in this vice. So we should think about the Mexicans and try to save more or invest in things for our future course Mexicans are not all equal but is very good to think ahead

Welll, I think that each person spends on based his income; and expenses of people vary according their needs.

Welll, I think that each person spends on based his income; and expenses of people vary according their needs.