This hypothetical struggling middle class family makes almost 3x what mine does. I'm soon to have a family of four as well (one toddler now, new baby in March), and yet somehow we survive with a house, car, daycare, no credit card debt, etc. and still manage to afford luxuries like new laptops, iPads and iPhones on a reasonably regular basis.

I'm of course aware that different areas are a lot cheaper (and being in Iowa, I certainly live in a much cheaper area than most of the examples calculated for the article), but for comparison: My house payments are less than half what they quote for this family, and my full time daycare costs with one toddler are less than half the number they're using for the year. They also apparently have a house cleaner that's $5k per year. Again, if we had the money, it'd cost us about half that on a yearly basis (I've priced it.. house cleaning is the bane of my existence). (Using a cleaner is pure luxury, though, IMO.) Dry cleaning? Thousands in new clothes each year? Geez. I guess I have no idea what it's like to be "average" as we certainly don't spend much at all on that sort of stuff. Their budget for holiday gifts is also something like 3x what we tend to be able to do, their yearly college funding is in the realm of fantasy compared to us, etc.

It seems to me like this "average" family is living a life of relatively decent luxury compared to what I can afford, but the article would have me believe I should feel sorry for them barely being able to me make ends meet? Of course I'd love to make more and if I did make more, I'd find ways to spend it - no doubt - but isn't that always the case? If they're uncomfortable with their financial situation, they can cut back and live like those of us who don't have a big house on a cul-de-sac, a cleaner, huge college savings, and fully funded retirement accounts.