Millions of Americans are doing it. You can do it, too.

New figures released from the Census Bureau last week show slouching toward poverty is easier than you think.

U.S. median household income slipped 2.3% in 2010 to $49,445. Median means half make less than that. And poverty -- at least officially -- means a family of four making less than $22,314.

The poor grew to 46.2 million people in 2010 from 43.6 million in 2009, yielding a 15.1% poverty rate, the Census data show. It's the fourth consecutive annual rise in the poverty rate, and yet another sign that what economists called a recovery has only propped up banks and the stock market.

Unless you are born into it -- as so many people are -- getting poor is not without hurdles.