Average monthly expenses for family of 4

Their stories help illustrate how a middle-class existence has fundamentally shifted over a generation.ДЇor Lauren and Trevor Koch of Sheboygan, making their finances work on one salary was a struggle.

It defined being middle class as having an annual household income from about two-thirds to double the national median, which translates to roughly $48,000 to $145,000 for a family of three (in 2018 dollars).ДЇour families, from Sheboygan, Wis., to San Francisco, gave us a glimpse at their monthly budgets. Most people believe that they belong somewhere in the middle class, but its boundaries and markers are subject to interpretation.Д«ased on income alone, about half of all adults in the United States fall in this category, according to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research group. TheyвЂ™re also making different kinds of tradeoffs. TodayвЂ™s middle-class families are working longer, managing new kinds of stress and shouldering greater financial risks than previous generations did. The costs of housing, health care and education are consuming ever larger shares of household budgets, and have risen faster than incomes. But what it takes to achieve all that has become more challenging.

What it means to be middle class hasnвЂ™t changed much - thereвЂ™s a steady job, the ability to comfortably raise a family if you choose to, a home to call your own, an annual vacation. Examine the typical American familyвЂ™s monthly budget, line by line, and a larger story emerges about how the middle class has evolved.

Average monthly expenses for family of 4