It's a question the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey has sought to answer.
The latest edition, taking in data from 2024, shows households are spending more on essentials than ever before.
Co-director of the survey Roger Wilkins said the update showed how the rising cost of living has manifested in the community.
"We're also seeing a tendency for rates of income poverty to edge upwards," Professor Wilkins told AAP.
"Measures of financial stress have been growing. Housing stress is pretty close to a record high, and we've also seen an increase in food insecurity."
Employment has reached a record high of 84.4 per cent of men and 76 per cent of women of working age, but wages haven't kept up with cost of living increases.
The buying power of households is steadily increasing again but remains below the average and median disposable incomes recorded five years ago.
Over a third of renters in the major capital cities are spending more than 30 per cent of their disposable income on housing.
For young adults, the ability to move out of home is becoming increasingly difficult as half of all Australians aged 18 to 29 are now living with their parents.
Half of working Australians report feeling over qualified for their job, contributing to lower life satisfaction and mental distress, which continues to increase post-COVID-19.
But inside the home, life-partner relationships are improving.
While couples without children are happier and more financially stable, parents who share the workload of raising kids also report stronger relationships according to lead author Inga Lass.
"We see that relationship quality is quite high at the beginning of a relationship, then it starts to decline until around the 24-year mark before it recovers," Dr Lass said.
"Pressures ease off when the house is paid off, people are established in their careers and might look towards retirement, the children have moved out, and that's when couples can prioritise their relationships again."
Mothers remain the dominant recipient of paid parental leave but the extension of a further two weeks to the scheme in mid-2024 appears to have been equally shared with fathers and partners.
Despite the take up of financial incentives, couples with children make up 2.1 per cent less of all households compared to 2001, contributing to a broader decline in fertility rates.
"It bumped up a bit during the Costello baby bonus period, but it has continued its longer-term slide," Prof Wilkins said.
"It's not just that people are having less children, we're also seeing young people now intending to have fewer children."
The longitudinal survey established in 2001 has followed a growing cohort of Australians now at over 17,000.
Prof Wilkins has been involved in some way with the release of every report since 2003 and said the survey was one of the few opportunities to measure the real impact of policy and the needs of the community.
"I think sometimes the general public isn't aware of how much the government's fumbling around in the dark, ...not having the necessary data to know fully what's going on," he said.
Changes to housing investment tax settings announced in the latest budget will likely take a few years to come through according to Professor Wilkins who flagged the impending wave of artificial intelligence as a likely driver of future updates.
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