Household Surplus Lab
Explore U.S. household surplus and investment potential
Household Surplus Lab is an interactive data tool built on 25 years of U.S. government survey data spanning from 2000 to 2024, with projections extending to 2026. It calculates how much U.S. households have left over after paying for essential costs like food, housing, transportation, healthcare, insurance, and education, and visualizes what that surplus would grow into if invested.
The platform allows users to dynamically adjust economic assumptions, tax models, childcare expenses, and investment return rates to see how different income groups fare. It is designed for researchers, analysts, and curious individuals looking to model household cash flows, wealth distribution, and what-if economic scenarios using government datasets.
Use Cases
- Researchers analyzing U.S. household surplus after essentials
- Analysts modeling the growth of invested household savings
- Individuals comparing income group wealth and spending distributions
- Policy observers testing hypothetical wealth tax and minimum tax scenarios
