A little more than halfway into 2025, Americans are facing new and complex financial challenges.

While inflation has cooled from its peak, its effects are lingering, especially in light of higher tariffs, elevated interest rates, and a tight labor market. Credit card balances have once again reached a new record high, student loan delinquencies are climbing, and a significant number of Americans still lack emergency savings.

In 2025, the economic landscape in the United States has shifted dramatically, with poverty becoming the new normal for millions of Americans. Despite low official unemployment rates and a booming stock market, the reality for working-class families is one of stagnant wages, skyrocketing living costs, and diminishing opportunities. Here’s how America’s “working poor” crisis unfolded:

The American dream was built around a timeline: Get married, buy a home, start a family. But that timeline is breaking down.

Today, Americans are waiting longer or opting out entirely: Fewer marriages, fewer babies, delayed moves. And behind it all, a housing market that increasingly seems like it was built for a different time. That’s why some experts are warning that the next big stress test for housing might not be affordability—but fertility.

A young man with severe asthma used to be able to get his inhaler for cheap, but after UnitedHealthcare’s drug arm jacked up the price, he had to go without — and it ultimately killed him, his mother says.

As Madison, Wisconsin’s WMTV reports, the parents of the late Cole Schmidtknecht are suing Walgreens OptumRX, UnitedHealth’s pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), after it upped the price of his steroid inhaler from $66 to $539.

For the second week in a row, mortgage interest rates have barely moved. The average 30-year fixed rate is down two basis points and is still 21 basis points higher than last year. The 15-year fixed rate hasn’t changed at all this week and is up 18 basis points since last August. “Is this a good time to buy a house?”

Are mortgage rates dropping?

As of August 28 this year, Freddie Mac reported that rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were 6.56%. Although they have inched down since last week, they’re still up 21 basis points from last August. This time last year, mortgage rates were averaging 6.35%.

As AI threatens white-collar workers and hits some college graduates looking for entry-level roles, young people are pouring into blue-collar job training programs.

Before the pandemic, the trade school market “had been largely stagnant,” according to a March report from the higher education marketing and research firm Validated Insights. Now, fall enrollment at trade schools is expected to grow 6.6% a year.

In the World Happiness Report’s annual ranking of the happiest countries, the U.S. dropped to No. 24, its lowest position in the list’s 13-year history. Last year, the U.S. dropped out of the top 20 for the first time. The list is compiled from analysis of how a representative sample of residents from over 140 countries rate their quality of life.

“That gradual decline in well-being in the United States is, if you start digging into it, especially driven by people that are below 30,” Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics at the University of Oxford, leader of the Wellbeing Research Centre and editor of the World Happiness Report, tells Fortune. “Life satisfaction of young people in the U.S. has declined.”

Texas is the top state with the most financial distress, a new study shows. 

There are a myriad of factors that can cause misery for Americans related to finances, whether its their monthly bills, credit card debt, or inflation. 

A few months ago, I was lost in the endless rabbit hole of TikTok’s “For You” feed, sipping my coffee and soaking in the algorithm’s attempt to decode me. It was a mix of book recommendations, tear-jerking podcast clips, and, oddly enough, Taylor Swift concert footage (not complaining about that last one). But one afternoon, the algorithm decided to inundate me with AI content — videos with bold titles like, “Use These Three AI Tools to Make $10,000 a Month!” or “The Best Passive Income Hack No One Talks About.”

After upgrading to a more spacious electric vehicle, Yin decides to forgo renting a flat, saving 2,500 yuan (US$350) a month on rent

A 38-year-old programmer working in Beijing, who spends weekdays sleeping in his car and returns to his home in nearby Tianjin every Friday, has gained significant attention on mainland social media.

The man, known as Yin, typically departs from Tianjin at 5.30am on Monday, driving 130km along the highway to reach his workplace in Beijing. He returns home after finishing work on Friday afternoons.