12 Things That Were Affordable to Do for the Middle Class 10 Years Ago, But Not Now
This is the financial landscape for many American families over the last decade -- the rising costs of living never allow middle-class lifestyles to be sustained in real terms. According to a new report, however, from PYMNTS Intelligence, nearly 50 percent of American households earning more than $100,000 a year and 62 percent of the remainder live paycheck to paycheck. Such individuals who have a regular income also find it challenging due to the rapid increases in the cost of living, such as rent, groceries, and healthcare.
Well, it has priced out a lot of experiences once reasonably affordable. Many families would have to choose between what is considered the great luxuries of leisure or family bonding.
Here are 12 experiences that were once reserved for the middle class but now cost too much for many:
1. Child Birth
Of course, raising a child has never been low-cost. But over the past decade, the cost has simply skyrocketed. The Berkeley Economic Review estimates that bringing a child to age 17 costs an American family almost $300,000. And that doesn't only count playpen and pediatrics but also healthcare, food, and education-all with child care added in, of course. Many people have discovered that they simply cannot afford a child.
Increasing daycare, education, and healthcare costs make it impossible for numerous young families to afford raising children as their parents managed, with the cost so rising nowadays.
While others criticize the next generations of making a career and personal growth as a priority over family, surveys indicate that the actual reason is financial. The cost of rearing a child has become so expensive that it is setting an environment where bearing a family is considered a luxury only affordable for the rich.
2. Family Festivals Organization
It used to be the time for family gathering and holding festivities for holidays, but nowadays it is a test in the finances for many. With the relentless increasing grocery, decorations, and gifts, the standard middle-class families would find themselves pressed in keeping holiday celebrations. As a CBS News survey has indicated, 40% of Americans simply cannot afford the extra money for holiday gifts. Many cannot afford to indulge in celebration-gift-giving. Many can just no longer afford it. And financial pressures are making the holiday gatherings decrease rather than increase.
Many people describe that higher sense of isolation since they cannot afford to socialize the way things were in the past.
Such social bonds that used to flourish in a coffeehouse or over holiday vacations with a family are now being displaced by financial troubles, taking fewer opportunities away from most people to unite and destress.
3. Listening to Concerts
Concerts and live events are one of the staples of middle-class entertainment. But with live events priced out by inflation as well as artist compensation needs and other rising production costs, even these venues are out of people's price ranges for many. "Smaller artists are disproportionately affected by the financial realities of the concert economy today," said a senior editor at Billboard, "pushing them to raise ticket prices just to keep up.".
While bigger concerts, such as Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour," make noise about ticketing, many families cannot afford this increasingly steep price for attending concerts and thus give up on hearing live music. What is no longer affordable has turned into a luxury in which middle-class families must forego concerts and use that hard-earned money for things that they might really need.
4. Childcare
Childcare costs have skyrocketed recently and become one of the main budget items for many middle-class families. According to a 2023 report by Care.com, 67% of parents spend more than 20% of their income on childcare-a percentage similar to that for housing. As the prices for rent, groceries, and utilities go up, many families become unable to afford childcare.
Many will not have to rely on relatives, but, according to the European Journal of Ageing survey in 2023, only 42% of working parents reported readily available support.
This leaves poor parents with very few options: quit their job and leave their children to fend for themselves at home, or pay for expensive professional day care services which is soaring into the unaffordable. The squeeze is tighter financially because of the anxiety the parents are under when their children are left with someone at work.
5. Hotel Stay
Vacations are no longer a way to have a much-needed break from your daily life, and with the average family spending around $4,000 on their vacation in 2023, many families have to forgo the experience.
Expenses for travelling, such as airfare, accommodations, and sights, have become out of reach. What is taken as a normal spring break trip or a weekend getaway for middle-class families is now considered a luxury and an awfully impossible one at that. Such families who always look forward to vacations are likely to skip them altogether and, thus, experience burnout or even resentment among their members.
Many parents have turned to credit cards as a means of creating those enjoyable experiences with their children, working themselves into debt merely in order to create those experiences. Of course, that only adds to their financial stress.
6. The Summer Camp for Kids
Summer camps were an apt respite for working parents and an lovely tradition for children, but today, they're way beyond the reach of most middle-class families. The Camp Experience The American Camp Association pegs the average cost for a sleepaway camp at around $200 per day and $87 for an average day camp.
While some financial aid has been offered, most target low-income families and thus leave the middle class out. Such programs cannot be afforded by such people, at least based on what is offered.
Multi-child households can easily get sticker shock. And, for the urban dweller without easy access to transportation, arranging carpooling of kids to camp can even further weigh against camp for many.
7. Visiting the Dentist
Routine dental visits, once a normal part of healthcare for many families, are now an unaffordable luxury for the middle class.
A 2023 Commonwealth Fund Health Care Affordability Survey indicates that most middle-class Americans lack adequate dental coverage, and thus, they will delay seeking the essential dental care.
Instead of regular cleanings and check-ups, families are now waiting till they face serious dental problems, which can be much costlier to treat.
Preventative care has been replaced by emergency treatment, which in the long run is expensive.
8. To Become a Stay-at-Home
Parent As child care and living costs have been driven up, many families have had to determine whether one spouse should stay at home to care for the children. Sadly, most middle-class families are no longer able to afford this luxury.
Today, couples who would once have looked forward to a stay-at-home parent are enough in reality to know that they have got to work to pay basic bills.
This usually results in burnout and stress, especially in areas which involve childcare.
The financial cost stress too will further stretch the relationships, and the stress from financial stress does bring about many divorces. Often, where co-parenting is a success there may not be much of any issues post-divorce, purely because the other spouse who was not working cannot go back to work at the place of employment as the timeline gaps.
9. Hairdresser
Though appearing to thrive upon the massive middle-class populations, haircuts, manicures, and other self-care luxuries seem to be niceties that most families cannot currently afford.
The little luxuries, Financial experts note do add value to happiness and lower stress levels; however, with the gradual increases of rent, grocery, and utilities, people have learned to forego these services for focusing on bare essentials. Indeed, for the latter, many resort to do-it-yourself solutions or forgo, with many feeling their deprivation is compounded while they attempt to stretch their scarce resources.
10. Achieving a Higher Education Degree
College degrees have skyrocketed in price over the past ten years. According to the Education Data Initiative, a public four-year degree has risen by more than 36%, and private institutions ballooned almost 56%. Meanwhile, with tuition continuing to skyrocket, more and more middle-class families will find it extremely hard without saddling themselves with significant debt.
The financial aid system which used to help the less fortunate is now preventing middle-class families from attaining that ultimate goal: defeating sky-high costs for education.
This has been with the consequence of an entire generation of young graduates fresh off their parents' payroll entering adulthood with huge debts, desperately searching for higher paid jobs that will help pay off mounting education costs and rising living expenses.
11. Vacation trips to Disney or Ski Resorts
For many middle-class families, vacationing at Disney World or skiing is no longer an option. A family of four will pay nearly $6,000 for a week at Disney, and peak-season costs skyrocket.
Even skiing, once one of the more affordable winter sports activities, suffered cost increases; at present a lift ticket could run as high as $133 per day. These vacations, once used to bond for families and relaxation, have now become a luxury only the richest can afford.
12. Marriages
The cost of weddings has skyrocketed, with the average wedding today costing around $35,000-not including the costs for guests attending. More and more young couples are eloping in an attempt to avoid spending a small fortune on a traditional wedding.
The rising cost of weddings has priced out the middle class, making it impossible for many a couple to celebrate their unions as they had dreamed. It also comprises financial aid to the guests such as bridal showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and hotel stays while traveling, among others, that burdens the guests' wallets further.
All of the 12 above experiences illustrate the widening gap between the rich and the American middle class. What once could reasonably and routinely be afforded by middle-class families is slowly being priced out of their reach as prices rise and wages stagnate. The more pressure, the more families cannot continue a lifestyle long considered stable and secure. The gap between basic survival and enjoying the comforts of life is expanding as more and more people wonder how they could ever reclaim the experiences that once defined a middle-class life.
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