The U.S. ‘Family Budget’

As you may recall, in 2024, we celebrated Preservation Specialists’ 20th anniversary. Now I’ll share an extra tidbit that very few people know. I actually incorporated a previous company in February of 2003 called Asset Preservation Specialists, Inc. I decided to rebrand to Preservation Specialists, LLC in October of 2004, so the previous eighteen months have typically been forgotten to history!

The reason I mention this is that I had the opportunity to meet longtime client Dave McCarthy back in April of 2003. He has been a pleasure to know and work with for so many years. We met recently, and he brought with him an article I wrote for the Lexington County Chronicle back in 2011. He suggested that I write an update of that article, and I thought that was an excellent idea!

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year. Since it is so difficult for us to comprehend such massive numbers, today we will try to adjust the numbers to fit a more typical U.S. family and their budget.

First, let’s look at the overall 2025 figures [source: fiscaldata.treasury.gov]

To make these numbers more understandable, let’s remove eight zeroes from the end of each number and pretend that it’s someone’s household budget. Let’s use Dick and Jane from my book, Save Your Retirement.

Dick and Jane’s:

Total Credit Card Debt: $394,600 [I am assuming this is credit card debt in this example to make sure that it is clear that this is not mortgage debt. This is purely debt from spending more than you earn every single year.]

Now, if you made around $52,000 last year, I’m guessing that you would try not to spend $70,100 that year! And, if you had almost $400,000 in credit card debt, I would certainly hope that you would attempt to reduce your balance instead of saying, “Let’s add another $17,000+ to the balance!”

In 2024, we had the honor of hosting David M. Walker to speak to our clients and friends of Preservation Specialists. Mr. Walker is the former U.S. Comptroller General, which is similar to saying that he was the head CPA for the United States.

Mr. Walker was clear that this is a massive problem. He believes that we urgently need the following three things to occur:

First, we need a president who will make fiscal responsibility a priority. Of course, that is typically very low on political priorities, so this is extremely difficult to find.

Second, we need a fiscal responsibility amendment to the Constitution that will limit the growth of the federal government and the amount of debt it can take on, absent extraordinary circumstances.

Finally, we need to create a statutory Fiscal Sustainability Commission. He believes this commission should restore the solvency and sustainability of Social Security, and it should also reduce our debt by comparison to our GDP [growth] by a certain future year.

The longer we wait, the more painful the solutions will be. I certainly hope that steps are taken for our sake, and especially for our children and grandchildren.

While we can’t predict what future politicians will do, these types of worries are among the reasons some of our clients spend extra time with us on tax and estate planning to ensure, as much as possible, that what they don’t spend goes to their loved ones. If this is a concern for you and you’re not sure you have everything in place, reach out to us right away to discuss it!

Warmly,

Founder and Managing Partner

Preservation Specialists, LLC

(803) 798-1988