Cost of Living
Introduction
This page goes over various cost of living calculations for the USA. The relevance is the achieving freedom: financial freedom, freedom of relationship, freedom of time. Freedome can be achieved once a basic level of life-support is secured. However, in today's world, the preoccupation with just making a living remains a worry for most people. Today only a few people pursue Self-Determination. Most people in the USA do not like their jobs. This begs a question: why does most of the world not pursue their true interests, by removing material constraints from dictating the course of one's life - when technological capacity to produce all needs far outstrips those needs - with modern technology?
Average Yearly Cost
- $20,194 per person per year according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (value given divided by 2.5 average household size ('consumer unit') - needs updated reference
- Of this, housing ($6844), cars ($3442), and food ($2577) totals $12863 per person - about 64% of the cost of living.
Average Amount of Money Spent on Housing
- $6844/person/year - includes utilities and furnishings - [1]
- $541 of this is electricity, and 451 is phone
- $1500 of this is mortgage payments, or about 1/4 of all housing costs
Average Amount of Money Spent on Transportation
- $3442 per person per year - BLS - [2] (dead link, needs updated reference)
- Of this, $1086 is for fuel and oil, and $205 is public transportation
Amount of Money Spent On Food
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - $2577/person/year - [3]
- Almost half of this is eating out
- $150/week/2.6 household = $230 per month
- $2700/year according to [4]
- $300/month for moderate - [5]
Average Debt
- The above statistics don't tell much about debt levels.
- $8500 is the average debt per person in America in 2008 - [6]. This is not $12k/person in 2019! (same source). In other words, people are living on money they do not have, which means in practice they are paying 15-20% interest rates ref
Other Data on the Average Highest Cost Sources for the Average Person
From [7]:
- Pensions,personal insurance, social security- $2242/person/year
- Healthcare - $1190/person/year
- Entertainment - $1134
Cost over a lifetime
Say a person lives 78 years [8], and you take the average cost of living from BLS.
Over 78 years, one spends an average of about $1.6 million dollars just to survive.
Of this, one spends about $1M on housing, food, and cars ($12683 per year * 78)
More specifically:
One spends an average of $530,000 to put a roof over their head over their life.
One spends an average of $270,000 on their wheels.
One spends an average of $201,000 on grub.
This certainly makes a case for buying out at the bottom.
Other Countries
What are the above figures for other countries?
Useful Links