Compare your spending to U.S. averages
Compare (titled National Benchmarks) puts your income and spending over about the last 12 months next to U.S. averages: income against individual worker pay, and spending against household averages from the 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey, nationally or by income bracket, age group or region.
On a phone, open More and tap Compare.
Income Comparison
- Household Income is your Income-group total for about the last 12 months, including the month in progress.
- Per Earner is household income ÷ the Earners: setting (1, 2, 3 or 4+). Your choice is saved to your profile.
- vs. Median compares per-earner income with the U.S. median for individual workers, $49,500.
- The percentile bar places you in a band of the U.S. distribution.
Spending Comparison
- Compare to
- National Average, By Income Bracket, By Age Group or By Region, each with its own menu.
- Time Period
- Monthly (the yearly figure ÷ 12) or Annual.
- Category View
- Summary groups FIYR's standard categories into broad rows, so your own categories do not appear there (they still count in your total). Detailed uses your own category mappings.
Difference % = (your amount − benchmark) ÷ benchmark
- More than 20% over is shown red; more than 20% under is shown green.
- Credit card payments, transfers and FIYR's standard income categories are not counted as spending here.
- Example: $9,000 a year on food against a $10,000 benchmark is −10%.
- Insights below point out the category furthest over and under the benchmark (by %), your total when it is more than 20% off the average, and, in Summary view, a high housing ratio when housing is more than 35% of spending.
Map your own categories
If you created your own categories, a Custom Categories Need Mapping note appears. Click Map them now (or 🔗 Manage Mappings at the top) and tell FIYR which benchmark each one belongs to.
What is included
Ignored transactions are left out, refunds are netted inside their category, and pending transactions count.
Common questions
Why are the comparison cards missing?
They need Income-group deposits in the last 12 months. Check that your paychecks are in an Income-group category.
Why did my mappings disappear?
Mappings are kept in the browser you made them in. Map them again on each device.
Where do the benchmarks come from?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: the 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey for spending, and its May 2024 wage statistics for income.
Still stuck?
Email us. A real person who builds FIYR reads every message.