It seems that life gets more and more expensive every year.
You won’t have to add much to your life, yet you will find that, from one year to the next, the costs will increase.
There are some reasons behind this that can be explained and some that can’t be explained.
Let’s look at a few reasons life is so expensive, and how you may be able to save some money.
Why Is Life So Expensive?
1. Housing
We should start off by saying that some of the costs associated with life are going to increase with inflation.
As time passes, the pricing of things naturally will increase as the dollar inflates.
Housing costs are one of the costs which make our lives so expensive.
If you don’t rent a home or purchase a home, you should know that the cost of housing is quite expensive.
The problematic thing about housing is that it is a must.
You have to find shelter, and there are no really cheap ways around it.
Most people are going to spend a large portion of their income on housing expenses.
Rent payments can range anywhere from $500 a month to $15,000 a month, depending on where you live and work.
You can expect that a good majority of what you make will go toward housing.
In addition to housing being expensive, people are deciding that they want larger and more accommodating housing.
In the past, it was fine for families to live in small homes and shared spaces, but that has certainly started to change as the years have gone by.
People expect separate bedrooms for everyone in the family, recreation rooms, playrooms, offices, and more in their house.
This only makes things more expensive.
In addition to the amount of space, it gets costly to pay to keep your house in great condition as well.
There is no question that a house makes life more expensive.
2. Transportation
If you want to be able to move from point A to point B, it is going to cost you some money.
Transportation is expensive.
If you decide you want to have your own transportation and purchase a car, you could need to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
If you rely on public transportation, you will end up spending hundreds if not thousands a month as well.
Most people live in areas where, at some point, they are going to need transportation.
Transportation is not cheap, but it has become a necessity.
Years ago, people would walk or bike to get from place to place.
As the world has expanded and spread out, this has become quite a bit harder.
However, many people are looking to cut transportation costs and start biking and walking whenever possible.
Cutting down on transportation costs will certainly make life more expensive.
3. Electronics
We live in a society which has become very dependent on electronics.
These electronics are continually changing and being upgraded.
As they become more advanced, people decide there is a need to purchase more of these electronics.
The more you purchase, the more money you are going to spend on electronics.
Most new phones are selling for over $1000, and many computers are selling from $2000.
Think about a time when there were no cell phones.
Electronics certainly help to make life easier at times, but they also make life more complicated and expensive.
When a new electronic device is released, people start to think they must have it.
With the way the marketing is done and the fact that other friends and family are purchasing the new device, it becomes almost a necessity.
In reality, none of these electronics is a necessity unless it is being used for work or safety.
However, most of the money being spent on electronics is purely for entertainment.
If you want great entertainment, there are cheaper ways to find it.
When setting up your budget, make sure you leave some room for electronics and their monthly costs.
Chances are you are going to find some need for them in your daily life.
4. Internet
It is hard to complete a project for work or school without the use of the internet.
Internet costs can get expensive, and people need access to the internet at almost all times.
You may have the internet on your phone and in your house as well.
These data packages cost quite a bit of money, and this will be a recurring monthly charge.
However, in order to complete even simple things like signing your kid up for camp or making a transfer from one bank account to another, you will need the internet.
The internet has made our lives better, but it has also made them more complicated and more costly.
When you look at a new home or apartment, one of the things you will do is find out how much your internet plan is going to be.
You will want to know the price of the internet because, without a doubt, it will be something that you will use.
In addition to being able to surf the internet, many people use these systems to be able to watch television and movies as well.
The cost of internet may seem small each month, but think about having to pay it over and over again for the rest of your life.
The price is going to be quite high.
5. Education
Education, at any level, is getting more and more expensive.
There are so many costs involved in education that it is, again, becoming something most people cannot do.
The high price for education starts as young as preschool.
Some children who are only two and three years old have tuition bills of $10,000 or more per year.
Their education may be a great one, but this is certainly a way to make life more expensive.
Some kids will go to private schools their entire lives and then end up in a college that costs $50,000 or more per year.
When you look at the costs of education, it can be hard to justify the expense.
Getting out of college and going to find a job that will cover some of this debt can be very difficult.
On the other side of the coin, if you go to a trade school, you will still have to pay for your education.
The costs of having a skill and growing in your field are getting higher and higher.
At one point, simply having any college degree was enough to get you through, but now, you will need a master’s or a doctorate to make it to the top at many companies.
6. Food
Food costs continue to go up.
If you are looking to eat healthy food that will keep you away from the doctors, the prices are going to be double or triple the costs of unhealthy food.
Food costs are higher because farmers need to make a living, as do the drivers who transport the food and the grocery store employees and more.
Each person along the line of food production needs to make money.
There is, of course, the alternative method of growing your own food.
Many people realize that having the ability to eat food right from your yard is essential at times.
The cost of growing your own food is usually significantly less, but it can be difficult to produce everything your family needs to survive.
The food you can produce on your own property is also going to make your property more valuable.
This is a great way to use your land.
However, most people will decide it is easier to purchase food from the store and continue paying more for what they need to feed their families.
Food costs are not going to go down anytime soon.
7. Technology
We mentioned electronics, but we were mostly talking about telephones and computers.
There is technology all over our world, and it makes life more expensive.
Technology can come in many different forms, like home security systems or any type of smart home system.
For instance, consider the doorbell cameras people have.
Years ago, people had never thought about installing a camera in their doorbell to keep an eye on their home at all times.
Today, this is very easy to do, and of course, it seems like a small expense.
However, sometimes these are monthly recurring expenses, and they make life much more costly.
Technology is one of those things people don’t want to pay for, but then they find that they can’t live without it.
If you are someone who protests the use of technology in your life, chances are you will spend quite a bit less money in the course of a year.
Many would argue that you will also make life a bit harder on yourself.
It will be interesting to see how technology changes in the coming years and if it continues to make life more expensive.
8. Medical Costs
Medical expenses are a costly part of life.
If you don’t want to go broke after breaking your arm, you will need to make sure you have health insurance.
Health insurance costs are incredibly high, especially when you are paying for it for an entire family.
Even after you have health insurance, you will still need to meet a deductible and pay things like co-insurance and co-payments.
The world of medicine is nothing like what it once was.
What used to be your simple yearly checkup for $100 is now sometimes costing $500 or $1000.
As soon as a doctor looks at your chart, it costs you money.
When you need lab work, they will sometimes run the fees through a lab that is not covered by your insurance.
The world of medical costs and medical insurance is an ugly one.
Mistakes are made constantly, and if you don’t follow up and pay close attention, you could end up paying a great deal more than expected on medical costs.
For people who have serious medical issues, you can spend your life savings in a matter of a weekend.
Medical expenses will make life much more expensive than it needs to be.
9. Services
The service industry is always growing, but it is growing now at a faster rate than ever.
People don’t want to do things for themselves.
Paying to have things done for you makes life expensive.
Having someone mow your lawn, clean your house, wash your car are all service related expenses that are going to add up quickly.
If you want to make life less expensive, you need to do things for yourself.
The problem with this is that it is going to be time-consuming.
Spending more time doing work for yourself could potentially lead you to make less money.
Of course, this cycle is a very difficult one to work out.
It takes time to figure out which services are necessary and which ones are more of a luxury.
However, people in the service industry realize they have an opportunity to make some great money from of those who don’t want to perform these services for themselves.
Things like getting your hair cut or having your house power washed are much more costly than they have ever been.
For those with the extra money to spend, it is well worth the price to be able to eliminate a few chores from their list.
10. Consumer Prices
The last reason life is so expensive is that the pricing of everything continues to go up.
Of course, we know that some of this has to do with inflation, but it is certainly not all caused by inflation.
When a pair of shoes used to be $20, it can now be $60 or more.
People used to be able to purchase an excellent T-shirt for $18, and now they are $50.
The pricing for consumer goods is continuing to rise.
Sometimes the pricing is based on quality, and other times, it is based purely on branding and marketing.
When a T-shirt or a game becomes popular, the price starts to go up.
The demand stays high, and the price stays high regardless of the quality of the product.
If you believe that things are more expensive than they ever have been, you are right.
Prices continue to go up, and people are still making the same amount of money.
Most people still choose to shop even though the costs are getting higher.
The pricing of consumer products is not likely to go down anytime soon.
As long as people are still buying, the prices will continue to rise.
Conclusion
As you can see, life is expensive for several major reasons.
None of these individual reasons can fix the problem.
Managing money, saving, and planning for the future is hard to do when the costs of day-to-day life are so high.
As time goes on, it is hard to imagine any end in sight.
Life has only continued to get more and more expensive, and it will probably be this way for many more years.
The best anyone can do is learn how to control spending and manage life accordingly.
NEXT: Why Is Indian Food So Expensive? (Top 5 Reasons)
John Copper says
You forgot GREED.
Anonymous says
Yeah, that section has to be added. All that big business wants is money and can’t care less about how expensive things are for us unless we make them care.
Emmanuel says
I really love reading your article. But the real fact is that. Life won’t get any way near easy. It always be getting Harder as day go on. You’re the one to get stronger. Competition have taken over. Population is getting high and people is too lazy to work. Depending on machine. Finding the easy way out of everything. I know you may think this as a rubbish. But technology. Have negatively affect Human than the merit human have get lazy. Really lazy
Anonymous says
Big buisness doesn’t care if things are expensive for us, the workers. What they do care about and the only thing they do care about is profit; even at the expense of the workers literally doing the stuff for them. They only care unless we make them care. Hope they change their mind in the near future.