Minneapolis, MN · Issue of September 9, 2026
Accounts covers money as households actually hold it: childcare and housing, college and eldercare, allowance and insurance, and the arguments that come with all of them. Personal finance is written for individuals. Almost nobody decides as an individual, so we report the household's numbers instead.
Ten years writing money explainers for a large personal-finance site, and tired of writing them for individuals when everyone he knew decided as a household.
One salary, four people, $58,000 a year. Thirty consecutive days, every dollar, logged by the household that spent it — and no commentary from us about whether any of it was a good idea.
Ledger · Marcus Whitfield
The Prathers have a pension, a house with equity in it, and $0 they could reach by Friday. They are not a story about bad decisions. They are a story about what happens when a household's income arrives on a school-year calendar and its costs do not.
By Catherine “Cat” Lindgren4 min read
Our analysis of federal childcare price data against fair-market rents finds infant care outrunning a two-bedroom in thirty-one states — plus a four-day school week spreading, a benefit cliff in committee, and the studies worth your time.
By David Nkemelu3 min read
Grandparent childcare saves American households billions of dollars a year and it is the least examined transaction in the household economy. We followed four families who rely on it, and asked what is being paid, and by whom.
By Rosa Delgado4 min read
The phone bill, the car insurance, the rent that is only for a few months, the groceries that get bought twice. Nine households added it up, and the median came to $9,840 a year — most of it in lines nobody thinks of as support.
By Marcus Whitfield3 min read
Every dollar, written down by the household that spent it, for thirty consecutive days. No commentary from us about whether any of it was a good idea.
By Marcus Whitfield1 min read
The fees are the part you see. Eleven families tracked a full season of one child's sport, and the fees came to under a third of it — the rest was travel, equipment, replacement equipment, and the meals eaten in a car.
By Marcus Whitfield2 min read
We asked nine households to guess their monthly subscription total, then went through twelve months of statements with them. Every single household guessed low. The median miss was $71 a month.
Ezra Lindqvist2 min
Across every Ledger and Audit we have run, one line is consistently misremembered in the same direction and by a similar margin. It is not a discipline problem, and the fix is not a coupon.
Marcus Whitfield3 min
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