The official economic numbers look healthy, but they hide how squeezed a typical family of four actually is.

• Inflation is slowing, which only means prices are rising more slowly — housing and other costs already jumped and are not coming back down.
• Unemployment is near record lows, but the real question for most people is whether their paycheck covers their life.
• Incomes have not kept up with housing, healthcare, and college, so a job no longer guarantees feeling financially secure.
• Headline stats like GDP growth and the poverty line say nothing about whether an average family can buy a house or save money.

Outlook: Expect the gap between strong-looking data and household strain to keep widening until wages catch up with living costs.