WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- Those bills keep adding up every month and it can feel really hard to get ahead of them. Middle class finances are in rough shape after the last few years.

The Federal Reserve says families are 40 percent poorer nowadays. The median net worth dropped from $126,000 in 2007 to $77,000 in 2010. Because of the "great recession" median family net worth in 2012 was no more than it had been in 1992 after adjusting for inflation. It wiped away 18 years of savings and investment.

Much of the drop off in net worth is being pinned on the collapse of housing prices.