Minneapolis, MN · Issue of September 9, 2026
4 pieces, newest first.
The legal costs are the part people expect. The part that flattens households is the six months afterwards, when one income has to furnish two kitchens and both of them need a can opener.
Tom Beckett3 min
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.
IndexDavid Nkemelu3 min
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.
Marcus Whitfield3 min
It starts as a stay. Nobody names an end date, the guest room stops being a guest room, and eighteen months later a household is running an arrangement it never agreed to. Six families on what they wish they had settled in the first fortnight.
Rosa Delgado4 min