excellent morning! It’s Daniel de Visé with your Daily Money.

Lower-profits households aren’t the only ones living paycheck to paycheck.

A growing distribute of middle- and higher-profits families are spending virtually all of their paychecks on essentials and have little or nothing left over each month for discretionary purchases or funds, Paul Davidson reports. (Hmm: Sounds like many journalists we have known.)

The pattern could curtail buyer spending, which makes up 70% of economic activity.

Here’s why many households are struggling.

Caregivers, too, are struggling financially

When she was 29 years ancient, Jacquelyn Revere received a phone call from a household partner while riding the recent York City subway to a comedy display. Revere needed to leave home to Los Angeles correct away. Something was incorrect with her mom.

Revere immediately took a 21-day leave from her job and flew to California. She would spend the next six years caring for her mother and grandmother, both dementia patients.

The expense of caregiving isn’t just ravaging the finances of older Americans, Medora Lee reports, but also those of younger generations who provide the worry.

College tuition is getting cheaper

Americans adore to grouse about the rising expense of college. But consider this: The average in-state learner at a community university now pays only $2,480 a year in net tuition and fees. 

Tuition, of course, is only one item on the list of college costs. Room and board can expense more. But the packed expense of attending a community college is falling, rather than rising, after you adjust it for worth rise. 

The average net worth in tuition and fees for an in-state learner at a four-year community college has plummeted by 40% in a decade, after worth rise, from $4,140 in 2014-15 to an estimated $2,480 in 2024-25, according to a recent update from the College Board.  

Other college costs are going down, as well.

📰 More stories you shouldn’t miss 📰

• Economy grew by 2.8% in the third quarter
• Climate transformation hasn’t killed homeownership
• assignment 2025 would overhaul overtime protections
• McDonald’s CEO addresses E. coli outbreak
• Two-thirds of Americans ponder they’re excellent with money. Are they?

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best buyer and budgetary information from USA TODAY, breaking down complicated events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.

Daniel de Visé covers money management for USA Today.