Anonymous Philadelphians Reveal Their Finances to Us
Quotes from Philadelphia residents with two very different salaries and expenses
To learn how Philadelphians across the socioeconomic spectrum spend, scrimp, save, and live on the money they’ve got, we talked to residents from Northeast Philly to South Philly to Germantown, who agreed to open their books to us with the understanding that we would not reveal their identities. Here, their stories and a breakdown of their salaries and other earnings – and what they spend to live in Philadelphia.
Living on $17,000 a year
As told by a 40-year-old single woman living in Northeast Philadelphia. She gets occasional gig work, but is unemployed much of the year:
This is not how 20-year-old me thought that 40-year-old me would be living.”
This is very sad to talk about, because I am able to go on a day-to-day basis and not really think about my life in this way. So to break it all down and talk about it is really hard. I’ve been permanently disabled since I was in my early 20s, and I have serious continuing health issues. Through a variety of small jobs, I earned somewhere around $17,000 last year. I recently made $700 in one week and thought to myself, Wow, I have no idea when that will happen again, but then I remembered that my Social Security Disability Insurance check will just go down again because I did earn $700. The only way I can make this work is that I have a lot of friends who help out — even if helping out is just picking me up and taking me out to get my nails done — and because I know how to get services I am entitled to, like EBT and discounted internet. Clearly, this is not how 20-year-old me thought that 40-year-old me would be living.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
Biggest Splurge: “Once in a while, you just have to say fuck it and order Door Dash or UberEats. I’m just like everybody else in that way.”
Living on $118,000 a year
As told by a single-ish 40-something man with young children.
I spend a lot on life insurance for myself because everybody in the family depends on my income.”
The biggest thing going on with me right now is that I’m in the middle of getting divorced. We have young children. So I’m paying $500 each month for a divorce lawyer and $2,500 a month in child support and alimony. I pay for my household and her household, because she’s disabled and not employed. And then one of our kids has illnesses, so even though I have fantastic health insurance, I’m spending about $600 each month out of pocket for their medical care. Oh, and let’s not forget all those braces.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
On Finding Ways to Save: “Thrifting. I probably spend $400 each year on clothes for all of us. We thrift everything but socks and underwear. And I believe in finding someone who will share their streaming codes with you. We have a bunch of streaming services and spend $0 on them, thanks to a kind relative.”
[Ed. Note: The original version of this above item reported that he spends $450 per month on dining out. The actual amount is $120.]
Living on $2.6 million a year
As told by a 70-something man living in Center City and at the Jersey Shore. He’s a business owner.
The city sucks me dry for more than $60,000 in property taxes for my house.”
Last year, I earned $1.5 million from the business — I own a professional services company — and then $1.1 million from stocks and other forms of investment. I own my big house in Center City outright — the city sucks me dry for more than $60,000 in property taxes on that — and the town I live in at the Jersey Shore also takes around $60,000 in taxes out of my pocket. My savings accounts right now have about $1 million in them. That number would have been much higher if you talked to me a year ago, but I recently made some very big investments in the form of property purchases.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
Biggest Splurge: “My grandkids! Aside from all the other money I spend on them, my tuition bill for three of them to go to a fancy private school in the suburbs is $150,000 each year.”
Living on $39,000 a year
As told by a 43-year-old single woman living in Manayunk with two kids, 11 and 4. She works in a school.
I have been without car insurance for a year.”
If you look at what my income is — and that includes child support — and you compare it to what my expenses are, the math really doesn’t math. Because it can’t. I don’t have enough money to pay all of my bills each month, so most months, I will pay some or all of my rent and then I’ll pay whichever utility is about to be shut off and let the others ride for a month or two. This is just the way it is. It’s not good, and sometimes I need to rely on family and friends. They recently did a GoFundMe, which did help. I drive, but I’ve been without car insurance for a year. And what I really need to do is quit smoking.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
Living on $175,000 a year
As told by a married woman living in Germantown with one child in college and one in high school. She works as an educator.
We’re not going to the newest Stephen Starr restaurant.”
We make more than a lot of other people out there, but I feel like we are very frugal with our spending — and in the world we are living in right now, I feel like you have to be. You can’t take anything for granted. So for the three of us in the house right now, including one very hungry teenager, I spend about $250 each month on groceries. You really have to try hard to spend that little, and we do. We go out to eat pretty regularly for tacos and pho and things like that, and our budget for dining out is $250 a month. So, no, we’re not going to the newest Stephen Starr restaurant. But we do love to travel and sometimes spend up to $5,000 a year doing that. Otherwise, we might just go to that Stephen Starr restaurant. But we’d rather see the world. And we can’t do both.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
On Savings: “You have to make sure you encourage your kids to save from an early age. We have $50,000 in a high-yield savings account and about $300,000 in two 401(k)s. But those numbers could have been so much higher if we had started younger.” Also: “We have about $20,000 in gold” — bought for $10,000 a couple of years ago, before it skyrocketed. “Not a bad investment.” [Ed. Note: Since the time of this interview, the value of gold has fallen.]
Living on $425,000 a year
As told by a married 50-something man living in Center City with two adult children who live in other cities. He works in the entertainment industry.
We’ve always lived below our means, so when big expenses do crop up, we just absorb them.”
Neither of us grew up with money. Actually, quite the opposite. So one of the big luxuries we have found of having the money that we do have is not paying too much attention to what we’re spending. We keep rather vague track of things. We don’t stick to a budget, mostly because we don’t have one. That said, we’ve always lived below our means, so when big expenses do crop up, we just absorb them. I remember when my parents had emergency expenses — whether that was car repairs or just back-to-school shopping they weren’t ready for, it made for a real crisis. So the best part of having some amount of wealth is that we don’t have to live with an anxious relationship with our money.
Monthly Spending Snapshot
Published as “Case Studies: Expense Report” in the April 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine. See also: “Philly’s Economy Is Growing — But People’s Lives Aren’t Getting Better” from the same issue.