How Americans of Each Generation Spend Their Money

Have you ever wondered how your spending habits compare to that of the average American? Or to others in your age group? Then check out this visual breakdown of how Americans of each generation are spending their money, created by Swagbucks using data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The expense categories include things like housing, transportation, food (both at home and away from home), healthcare, entertainment, education, apparel, personal care and services, as well as categories for alcohol and tobacco products. Swagbucks found that the average American spends $63,050 each year on living expenses, with roughly 30% of it going to housing for all of the different age groups. This was the highest expense, followed by transportation which averages 17% of our annual expenses. It will be interesting to see how much this percentage drops as more companies begin to offer permanent Work From Home opportunities. Food expenses were a close third making up an average 13% of all living expenses, with ‘Food at Home’ slightly edging out ‘Food Away from Home’ in the breakdown of expenses for all age groups except for those younger than 25 years old. Many Americans have issues with spending too much money, shop therapy is a real thing! If you’ve been struggling with spending too much money and not putting enough into savings, SwagBucks has also shared some smart spending habits that may be helpful to you. Some of these habits include creating a budget to know where your money is going, or setting up an automatic payment into your savings account each week so that you can save without even having to think about it!