With all the news lately about people (specifically Americans) living beyond their means, I thought I might discuss a topic that is typically considered somewhat taboo—my personal budget from the past month.
I’ve been entering my spending into Expensr religiously for about a year now to figure out my budget breakdown. I’ve covered Expensr once before here on the blog—you can anonymously enter your information and then break it out for evaluation and compare yourself to others who have defined themselves through various tags. For example, I’ve tagged myself with 23, young professional, woman, renting, Chicago, employed full time, etc. I spent $1,789.11 during the last month—which was actually inflated by the fact that I adopted Romulus, and he needed a fair number of shots for his kittenhood. As it turns out, my spending is well below average.
So here’s what surprised me…
Check out the average amount spent per month for the following age groups, according to Expensr (I should point out that this sample size is fairly small, but this is interesting nonetheless):
Age: Average Dollars Spent Per Month
- 18: $952.08
- 19: $1,022.27
- 20: $1,599.37
- 21: $1,454.17
- 22: $1,938.54
- 23: $4,175.99
- 24: $3,664.86
- 25: $3,011.25
- 26: $4,942.25
- 27: $3,648.50
- 28: $3,860.44
- 29: $5,275.85
- 30: $4,931.99
To put this into perspective, at this rate, these 23 year olds would need to be earning well over $200,000 per year in order to deter massive debt. I’m not sure how representative this actually is of typical 18-20 year olds, but if it is, I’m worried. Please restore my faith and tell me that you’re not spending this much per month. Please tell me Expensr is flawed.
I definitely don’t spend what the average 20 year old does! I think my budget is a little warped though. I paid off my rent until December last August with my financial aid. It makes my budget look smaller. But I’m hoping Expensr is flawed too. I don’t see myself making $200,000 anytime soon!
I don’t even make enough a month to match what a 23 year old spends. And considering I’m not losing massive amounts every month, I’d say that this data is incomplete. Maybe that all depends on where you live and how much your parents give you. Or maybe all the young millionaires have been using Expensr. That would definitely skew the data a bit.
Or maybe not everyone’s parents give them money.. AT ALL. Believe it or not (I think, sadly, its more the latter) there are young people in this country that are completely independent of their parents before they turn 20 - which would make spending 3k+/month pretty easy to do when you consider health benefits, rent, car payment, car insurance, parking, student loans, cable, internet, utilities, groceries, gifts, pets, clothes, mis-haps, and oh yea.. fun. This of course all depends on where you live, and how you live, but I can say with great confidence that even living moderately you could easily hit the benchmarks found in the report.
Hmm, I kind of feel like a jerk, because I definitely had the support of my parents. I guess I was gearing more toward people who are spending beyond their means for no particular reason, but you make a really valid point.
Allie, my comment was more “directed” at Stephanie Zilles who said “…and how much your parents give you”.
Now, this is not to say that either of you aren’t independent and driven individuals, the purpose of the comment was to hopefully put things into perspective for all of your readers, regardless of personal finance situations.
But since I’m here - If you are reading this, do the economy a favor and attempt to become financially independent; the last thing we need right now is people relying on others for money ;).