My family works two jobs each and we still can't afford anything,why?

My family works two jobs each and we still can't afford anything,why?

Jordan Goodman (Personal Finance Author) gives expert video advice on: Why is life so expensive?; Why are things so expensive?; How much is the cost of living expected to go up in the coming years? and more...

A lot of people are in this situation, where the husband and wife are working, and they still feel they can't afford anything. The reason is, in many cases, if they actually sit down with a budget - the expenses they have are higher than the income they are bringing in. In many cases their expenses are going up because their gas costs are going up, their healthcare may be going up, cost of college education may be going up, but their incomes are not going up along with it. In many cases people are making up the difference between their expenses and their income with debt. So, debt then adds to the burden and makes it difficult for people to afford things - because they're having to make the debt service payments all the time. Lately, a big problem has been mortgages. People got mortgages a few years ago that were below market - two and three and four percent, that would adjust up to the market rate in two or three years. And that is now arriving - and so a lot of people are having their mortgages go up dramatically - double, triple, in many cases. And if they either can't afford that, or it's very difficult to afford it, means all the other things they need to spend money on, become much more difficult. So, that's why a lot of Americans are over their head in debt, right now, trying to keep up with the higher cost of living.