From The Atlantic: 

Hat tip to Sonia from the NGPF team for pointing out this informative article from the Atlantic. Here's how it described life in 1900: 

In 1900, seen from perch of the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- which counts national jobs, income and spending -- the United States is like one big farm surrounded by a cluster of small factories. Almost half of the country works in agriculture. As for the budding services economy: There are more household servants than sales workers. As for the women's rights movement: More than twice as many households report income from children (22%) than wives (9%). 

Questions for students:

• What has been the most dramatic change in the family budget over the past 100+ years? What do you think accounts for this change?
• What cost category has continually grown over the last century? 
• How do you think family budgets might have changed since 2003? What categories do you think have increased? decreased? Explain.
• Are there any major cost categories that you think should appear on this chart? 

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Want your students to improve their skills at interpreting data? Check out NGPF Data Crunches. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.