To both of your questions, no. > Not to take away from your excellent point but is spending $9k/year on transportation really mandatory? Before "Cash for Clun

To both of your questions, no. > Not to take away from your excellent point but is spending $9k/year on transportation really mandatory? Before "Cash for Clunkers", an Obama-era program that removed a lot of older vehicles from the road, it was normal to be able to purchase a functional and clean used vehicle for $2-3k. It is clear that the program was a great success at removing these vehicles. But with the average American car today being a mid-size SUV, it's not clear that it achieved its objective of reducing our CO2 emissions. Either way, the cost of a used vehicle today is much higher. > $7k on utilities? This is $700 per month. Someone in a medium-large house in a state with high electricity costs might spend this during the summer months. But the median American utility bill is probably in the $200-300 range, or $3600/year at the high end. The actual category on the linked web page includes "and other household operational costs". Figuring 1% of home value per year spent on maintenance, for a $300,000 home, that's another $3000. And that, combined with the utilities, gets us pretty close to the $7k number.