When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
I used to remember thinking to myself “Man I cannot wait to be an adult. So much freedom.”
The sad reality is that adulting comes with hidden things that my parents never talked to me about. Bills…
America is supposed to be the land of the free, but how free Americans when the average American is working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Growing up, my parents didn’t talk about bills. They paid them, sure, but the stress, the juggling, the sacrifices? That was all behind closed doors. So when I stepped into adulthood, it wasn’t freedom I found—it was financial survival.
And that survival looks very different today than it did in the 1950s.
Back then, a single income could support a family. One parent worked, the other stayed home. They had a house, a car, savings, and maybe even a vacation. In 1950, the average household income was around $3,300, and a modest home cost $7,150 1. That meant a home cost just over two years’ salary.
Fast forward to today: the median household income in the U.S. is $83,730 2, but the median home price exceeds $400,000 3. That’s nearly five times the average annual income. And while wages have increased over time, they haven’t kept pace with the cost of essentials like housing, education, and healthcare.
• Home prices have risen over 1,000% since the 1970s 3.
• College tuition has increased by 177% for public schools and 158% for private schools 3.
• Food insecurity affects 12.8% of households, with over 42 million people receiving SNAP benefits monthly 4.
Even with full-time jobs, many Americans are still struggling. A record 8.9 million people now work multiple jobs to make ends meet 5. That’s 5.4% of all employed workers, and the number is growing. Nearly 36% of U.S. adults report having a second job or side hustle 6.
This isn’t just about numbers—it’s about quality of life. People are exhausted. Burned out. Working 60+ hours a week and still falling behind. The American Dream has shifted from “owning a home and raising a family” to “surviving the month.”
Adulthood, for many of us, isn’t marked by milestones. It’s marked by moments of reckoning—when we realize the system isn’t built for us, and we have to navigate it anyway.