The numbers from Empower Personal Dashboard™ from January 2020 through March 2025 suggest a pattern of lifestyle recalibration, with consumers allocating dollars toward convenience, wellness, and personal enrichment, even as they experience pressure in cost-of-living expenses. All spending data and analysis below are sourced from Empower Personal Dashboard™.

1. Living costs surge: Essentials take a bigger bite out of budgets

Rent:

Up from $336 (January 2020) to $844 (March 2025), a 151% increase.

This spike reflects surging housing costs, driven by inflation, demand-supply imbalances, and higher interest rates impacting rental markets.¹

Mortgages:

Jumped from $882 to $1,449, a 64% increase in average monthly spending.

Higher interest rates, elevated home prices, and increased property taxes are likely to contribute to this sharp rise in mortgage costs.²

Utilities:

Increased from $214 to $302, up 41% over five years.

This increase is driven by higher energy costs and increased home utility usage due to hybrid work and extreme weather conditions.³

Insurance:

Up from $397 in January 2020 to $547 in March 2025, a 38% increase.

Reflects rising premiums in health, auto, and home insurance, driven by inflation and more comprehensive coverage needs.⁴

Figure 1 highlights categories that reflect where Americans are most significantly reallocating their budgets toward lifestyle upgrades and unavoidable cost pressures like mortgages, rent, and insurance.

Figure 1: Top spending increases – 2020 vs. 2025

Source: Empower Personal Dashboard™.

2. Spending smarter: Digital transformation is disrupting traditional categories

Printing:

The average monthly printing expense declined 62% from $178 in Jan 2020 to $67 in March 2025.

Digital transformation and remote work have drastically reduced the need for physical documents.⁵ Moreover, cost-conscious households may be minimizing paper use to save money and reduce waste.

Cable/satellite:

Average monthly spend decreased 23% from $154 in Jan 2020 to $118 in March 2025.

Consumers are increasingly abandoning traditional television for streaming services that offer on-demand, ad-free content.⁶

Subscriptions:

Average monthly spend dropped 21% from $130 in January 2020 to $102 in March 2025.

This decline is possibly due to consumers consolidating or canceling unused subscriptions in response to rising overall living costs.

Telephone:

Average monthly spend decreased 7% from $160 in 2020 to $149 in 2025.

Spending has steadily declined since 2020, likely due to the rise of Internet-based communication apps and bundled digital plans reducing standalone phone costs.

Figure 2 highlights areas where spending has dropped—often traditional categories reflecting digital disruption.

Figure 2: Top spending decreases – 2020 vs. 2025

Source: Empower Personal Dashboard™

3. Experience over excess: What rising costs may not change about American priorities

Online services:

84% rise in average spend from January 2020 through March 2025, from $219 to $403.

This may indicate a shift to digital-first lifestyles—use of AI, streaming, subscriptions, virtual coaching, etc.

According to Empower Personal Dashboard™ data, since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was publicly released in November 2022, the average monthly online services spend increased 19%.

Entertainment:

Consumers increased average monthly spending on entertainment 28% from $221 in January 2020 to $284 in March 2025.

This could indicate that even under increasing costs, Americans continue to prioritize leisure and recreation.

Travel:

12% increase in average spending since pre-pandemic (January 2020)—from $1,092 to $1,226 in March 2025.

The average monthly travel spend increased 1.6% YoY in 2025, indicating Americans may be prioritizing experiences over possessions, even in an uncertain economy.

Clothing/shoes:

Climbed from $381 in January 2020 to $561 in March 2025, a 47% increase.

Potentially reflects post-pandemic lifestyle changes, return to office wardrobes, and inflation in apparel pricing.

Personal care:

Average monthly spend climbed from $214 in January 2020 to $245 in March 2025 (+14%).

This includes grooming, beauty, wellness—potentially indicating the small luxuries people are unwilling to give up.