Hi! All of us have a habit to sometimes test our waters with a health condition, be it an upset stomach or a common cold which has uncommonly lasted for three business days. But what about some conditions that are aren't so quite common?

Well, at least it isn't as bad as having an ACHOO syndrome, which has you literally sneezing looking at the sun. Those were some facts, to help you not procrastinate your appointment on the occasion of National Call Your Doctor Day. And now let's get started with our regular!

Today’s special:

United States of Debt: The U.S. is drowning in debt and will be a sinking ship of debt by 2050s!

Tooting My Taxes: How much relief does tax write offs provide since the 1970s?

Pocket-Sized Home: How much income do you need to own a house these days in America?

America’s debt pile has officially stepped over a line once considered unfathomable: the country now owes more than it produces in an entire year. US debt held publicly by March 31 reached a mammoth amount of $31.265 trillion, and consequently edged past annual GDP of $31.216 trillion, making it the first time since the aftermath of World War II.

But unlike 1946, when debt peaked at 106% of GDP and rapidly fell down owing to booming growth plus shrinking war expenditure, today's surge in debt looks more ominous and permanent. Back then, America had a young population and an untapped gold mine of industrial growth.

Today, it faces a population that is aging, with rising entitlement obligations, and structural deficits in large amounts. The federal government is currently spending $1.33 for every dollar it collects in revenue, while annual deficits are hovering near 6% of GDP.

Beyond the harrowing news of insurmountable debt, the most alarming part about it is not the debt itself; it’s rather the cost of carrying it. Just to service its debt, the US now spends more than it does on either Medicare or national defense, with net interest payments annually surpassing a threshold of $1 trillion. To be more precise, basically one in every seven federal dollars now goes toward interest payments alone.

On further inspection this trajectory continues getting steeper following the projection made by the Congressional Budget Office that debt held by the public will likely reach a new landmark of $53 trillion by 2036. Meanwhile debt-to-GDP is expected to climb to 120% by 2036, and the more years pass by the worse it will get potentially 175% by 2056.

For now, US Treasuries still hold the title of the world’s safest asset in the eyes of investors. But America’s “exorbitant privilege”, depends heavily on global confidence which as history tells us goes away faster when debt accumulates. The real danger isn’t whether this ship sinks tomorrow. What's more concerning is that Washington keeps punching holes below the deck and assumes water will never rise.

While the intention of Tax write-offs was to ease burden by acting as a financial lifeline but in practice, for many Americans today, they’re akin to a technical adjustment. Mainly because deductions reduce taxable income unlike Credits, which lowers the bill directly. In other words, the former takes a slice from the top while the latter takes a chunk of your debt.

The system now offers a gamut of relief options from a $2,200 child tax credit (with $1,700 refundable) to education perks worth up to $2,500 like the American Opportunity Credit. Not to mention, some tipped workers can now deduct up to $25,000 in tip income, while certain taxpayers can write off up to $10,000 in car loan interest.

But all of that relief doesn’t matter if rents and groceries are growing faster than your tax savings. Even the standard deduction’s steady climb looks more like an inflation adjustment than beneficial as it rose from $15,750 for single filers in 2025 to $16,100 in 2026. While for those who have tied the knot, they saw it increase from $31,500 to $32,200.

The tax season has made most households pivot from optimization to survival mode and in bated breath around 69% of Americans expect a tax refund as per a study conducted by Qualtrics. Americans intend to use these refunds for good in fact, 77% plan to spend it on necessities, on the top of the list for 52% are rent or utilities and groceries are priority for 44%.

The urgency is just as telling: getting their refund quickly is a matter of immediate need for 91%, which goes to show how little buffer time many households have. More than half are dealing with rising living costs by relying on refunds and living paycheck to paycheck is the only way for 35%.

On further inspection the dependence on refund only deepens about 6 in 10 Americans need refunds as they are essential to meet even the basics of needs, and a smaller sum than expected refund would hurt 64% of them. Even when refunds arrive, for 25% they’re not stretching as far as they used to.

The American dream has been privatized and to enter it would cost a six-figure subscription service. By the fourth quarter of 2025, affording a home in the U.S. required an income of $106,730 with a 20% down payment and that number rises to more than $122,000 if one is willing to only put 10% down payment. This calculation comes off from an assumption that the median national home is valued at $414,900, followed by mortgage rates currently averaging 6.23%.

In San Jose, buyers now need a staggering salary of $458,503 with 20% down payment, while Pittsburgh moves the goalposts closer for buyers at $64,106. For those looking to settle down in New York City, they would need over $200,000 just to stay within standard lending ratios.

Equally across different states the divide is just as palpable as per the analysis by MoneyLion for instance in Hawaii for a single buyer even with a 10% down payment, they would need roughly $221,443 on an annual basis as opposed to the $39,000 required in West Virginia.

A big paycheck is no longer a guarantee for a mortgage, as lenders are scrutinizing income stability over someone’s salary size as per an analysis from Truework on 300,000 verified applicants. In addition, the number of Americans experiencing downward income instability rose from 50% in early 2022 and by mid-2025 it reached 62%, while the severity of income swings nearly tripled.

To make things worse that shift is converging with an already brutal affordability crunch, households now need even with a 10% down payment about $120,796 in a year just to be able to afford a typical home within the U.S. and that’s perhaps too tall of an ask when it's roughly 48% above the median US household income. And for two consecutive years, nine of the 10 least affordable metros for homebuyers are located in California, while there’s still hope for those who are willing to settle for cheaper markets toward the Midwest and South.

All in all, the result is a situation where America’s housing market is bifurcated into two economies: one for those with stable high income and another for those who are just trying to catch up.

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