A Forecaster book proposal
By Kevin L. Michel
Digital PDF edition
Money & work · A BOOK PROPOSAL
YOU CAN’T BUDGET YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS
The New Cost of Being Middle Class
A proposed examination of the distance between earning a middle-class income and feeling financially secure. The book would follow the household costs that a budget must accommodate: housing, transport, care, insurance, debt, and the price of unexpected events. It would distinguish choices a household can change from constraints shaped by local markets, wages, family circumstances, and public institutions. Readers would learn to interpret affordability measures, compare the trade-offs behind everyday decisions, and understand why national growth figures and personal financial experience can tell different stories. The aim is a clearer picture of security, including both the uses and the limits of personal-finance advice.
$25USD · Digital PDF
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Inside the proposed edition
- The ordinary life: what belongs in the basket?
- Middle-class income, middle-class security: different measures
- Housing and the costs of moving somewhere cheaper
- The care, transport, and insurance bills behind a paycheck
- What budgeting can change, and what it cannot
- Debt, savings, and the price of an unexpected month
- Why growth, inflation, and personal finances diverge
- Comparing household options without treating every life alike
The idea behind the book +
Harvard’s 2026 rental-housing research reports rising cost burdens among middle-income renters as well as lower-income households. The OECD’s September 2026 outlook describes AI-related investment supporting activity while energy-price pressures threaten household purchasing power. These findings provide distinct starting points for examining the relationship between economic growth and everyday financial security.
