5 reasons that many Utah high-earners don't feel "rich"
You make good money, you work hard, and by most external measures, you are doing well. But at the end of the month, you are not sure where it all went.
You are not alone, and it doesn't mean you are bad with money. For many Utah high-earners, the math has genuinely gotten a lot harder over the past few years. To keep you from feeling crazy, this post helps break it all down.
1. Inflation is a compounding problem
Most people track whether prices are going up, not whether they ever came back down. Spoiler alert: They did not.
The headlines in might celebrate slowing inflation, but slowing is not the same as reversing. Prices that spiked are now the new baseline, and they keep climbing from there. Between 2020 and 2026, the cumulative inflation rate in the U.S. hit roughly 27.6%. A household that was spending $8,000 a month in 2020 now needs about $10,200 to buy the same lifestyle.
Think about that. Your salary may have grown, but if it has not grown by at least 27% over the last six years, your actual purchasing power has gone backward. And most salary increases happen in 3 to 5% jumps. Even if you got a raise every single year, you likely still lost ground to compound inflation.
2. Mo kids, mo spending
Utah has long been one of the highest-birth-rate states in the nation. Even as Utah's fertility rate has declined in recent years, Utah still reported 13.0 live births per 1,000 residents in 2023, higher than the national average. That means the typical Utah HENRY household is likely managing a larger family than their counterpart in other states.
And children are expensive. A 2026 LendingTree study found it now costs $276,509 to raise a child in Utah, covering food, child care, and other essentials.
Multiply that across two or three kids, add youth sports, school fees, and clothing, and a Utah household can easily spend $40,000 to $70,000 per year on children before saving a dollar.
3. Utah's cost of living is . . . elevated
Utah used to feel like a bargain. It might still compare well against California or the Pacific Northwest, but the gap has closed significantly.
Housing is the most obvious pressure point. Utah's average home value now sits around $541,000 according to Zillow, up sharply from 2020, when median prices were closer to $330,000. That is a roughly 65% increase in five years! With mortgage rates above 6%, the average Utah house payment now runs around $3,600 per month, before taxes and insurance.
The Urban Institute's American Affordability Tracker puts it in stark national terms: while average earnings have grown 38% since 2017, rents have risen 50%, home sale prices 80%, and child care costs for two young children have jumped 40%. Salt Lake area families are living those statistics everyday.
Utah now ranks 27th in U.S. News affordability rankings, putting it firmly in the more expensive half of all states. For high-earners who moved here expecting an affordable lifestyle, the ceiling has risen faster than their paychecks.
4. Climbing utility bills are not just in your head
Nationally, average residential utility costs are roughly 30% higher in 2025 than they were in 2021. Since 2020, the average total household utility bill has risen 41% according to J.D. Power data.
In Utah specifically, Rocky Mountain Power, the state's largest electric utility, proposed a 30.6% rate increase over two years in 2024. After public backlash, they reduced the request, but rates still went up. Their approved 2024 rate proposal added an average of $13.87 per month for residential customers in step one and another $10.27 monthly in step two, phased in through January 2026. That is over $24 per month in electric bill increases alone, before usage changes or any other utility.
Salt Lake City's public utilities also proposed a 4% rate increase for water and sewer in its 2024-2025 budget. These are not dramatic headlines, but they layer on top of each other and compound, just like inflation.
5. Insurance costs
Home insurance in Utah has taken real hits. Between 2018 and 2022, homeowners in several Utah zip codes saw premiums jump more than 40%, according to data from Utah's Insurance Commissioner's office. Utah ranked third nationally in home insurance rate increases, behind only Texas and Arizona, per S&P research cited by KUTV. Wildfire risk, which Rocky Mountain Power cited as a cost driver in its rate case, are another contributing factor.
On the auto side, Utah updated its minimum liability coverage requirements effective January 1, 2025, which pushed premiums up at renewal. Car insurance costs rose 46% nationally between 2022 and 2024, though Utah saw some relief in 2025. Still, a family running two or three cars is absorbing insurance bills that look nothing like they did three years ago.
Nationally, home insurers have continued requesting rate increases driven by weather volatility, inflation, and rising rebuild costs.
So what can you do about it?
The answer is twofold:
- Don't frame your financial stress as a personal issue—it's a reality that all Utahns are facing.
- Shift from a reactive to proactive approach by making a financial plan.
An important component of the financial plan is to "pay yourself first." This is another way of saying that you withhold a certain amount of income for savings and long-term goals, before bills and groceries and other escalating expenses can get to it. This requires a clear picture of your long-term goals and timelines, but nailing these down can bring peace-of-mind like you might not have experienced—at least since 2019 or so.
Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.