Housing costs have gone up much faster than inflation and this directly impacts our property tax. On top of that we have things like Cell phone bills, cable, Internet and other technologies that are new.

On top of that many or most people now buy their own or need to contribute to health insurance costs and other health insurance bills where most of the time this was provided by employers in the past.

I'd say my kids have more "things" than I did growing up, but it's a totally different world.