1. Housing: Rent is all about location, location and location including supply and demand. The rent is high in some places because a group of customers are able

1. Housing: Rent is all about location, location and location including supply and demand. The rent is high in some places because a group of customers are able to pay that exorbitant price be it in NY, SF or Seattle. You draw higher salary for that in those big cities. And I agree that rent/mortgage is a major chunk of a white collar job income(typically middle class). 2. Healthcare: With Obamacare, I am pretty optimistic that people will not be scared to stay hostage to their employer and the pre-existing conditions nightmare will end soon yada yada. But the healthcare in US is expensive because: higher prices for services themselves, higher costs to administer the system, or more utilization of these services. Also the health care system is "dysfunctional" because the system of third-party payments from insurers removes the patient as a major participant in the financial and medical choices that affect costs. 3. People are not given enough exposure on how to manage their finance. People have no clue about their personal finances till they are drowned with several debts(study loan, credit card etc) in their twenties and thirties. In this consumerism society, the concept of buying and instant gratification is stronger than the concept of saving. However somebody can start from here: 1. Spend less than you earn and start saving from the day you start making money. 2. Spend some time on net and find deals. There are some really good deals available for everything. Just ex: You can get a phone plan for $10/month (unlimited talk and text no internet though) and $25/month(unlimited talk, text and data) from Republic wireless. Only caveat is, the plan is limited to android and you have to buy the phone for $299.00 upfront. Few fellows have taken disciplined approach and retired in their thirties and forties. http://rootofgood.com/about/ http://rootofgood.com/about/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/10/03/how-mr-money-mustache-retired-at-age-30-and-how-you-can-too/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/10/03/how-mr-mone... http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/