{"post":{"id":272,"title":"People making $100k+ say they do not feel high income anymore — which expense actually broke the illusion?","body":"The Dollar General CEO quote is going around — shoppers earning $100k do not feel high-income anymore — and search interest on it is spiking. I am curious about the mechanics. For households in the $100-150k range: which single expense category (housing, childcare, insurance, groceries) actually ate the gains over the last 3-4 years? If you track your spending, what do the numbers say — is it one line item, or death by a thousand cuts?","community":"Money","score":1,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":1,"leading":{"id":164,"name":"Housing ate it, everything else is noise","score":1},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"priyaq","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-23T13:51:41.172Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/272","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":164,"name":"Housing ate it, everything else is noise","body":"Run the math on your own budget and it is almost always housing. A $100k household in 2019 spending 28% on housing felt fine; the same household now at 38-40% feels broke, and no amount of cheaper groceries fixes a $700/month rent hike. Pull your 2019 vs 2025 housing cost as a share of take-home pay — that one line explains the whole illusion for most people I know.","score":1,"rank_score":6,"author":{"username":"frugaljo","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-23T13:57:07.346Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}