Sources

This project draws on three publicly available datasets covering student, working-age adult, and elderly household spending.

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1. Kaggle — Student Spending Dataset

Link: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/sumanthnimmagadda/student-spending-dataset

Self-reported monthly spending records from ~1,000 college-aged students across categories such as housing, food, entertainment, and technology. Used to represent the Student life stage. Likely overrepresents financially self-aware students and is not a random national sample.

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2. Kaggle — Customer Personality Analysis

Link: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/imakash3011/customer-personality-analysis

Consumer profiles from a marketing campaign with household income, family composition, and spending data. Used to represent the Working Adult life stage (ages 25–64). Likely reflects a European consumer base and is not generalizable to all U.S. working adults.

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3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Expenditure Public Use Microdata (PUMD), 2024

Link: https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd.htm

A nationally representative probability survey of U.S. households tracking detailed spending across dozens of categories. Filtered to households where the reference person is 65 or older to represent the Elderly life stage. Excludes those in nursing homes or assisted living.