'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap
'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap
Some say they won’t be able to pay off their credit cards by the end of the year.
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I'm worried "paycheck to paycheck" is up to the interpretation of the person filing it the survey and how the questions are phrased. Depending on how the questions are worded, they'd possibly include me. My wife and I max our IRAs, 401ks, and HSAs each year. Anything that can be put on the credit card, is (then paid off before any interest can accrue). Like sure if you look at our monthly expenses vs income hitting the bank, we are "paycheck to paycheck". But we could both lose a significant portion of our income and be just fine (provided we scale back retirement savings).
Unless they address that in these articles or surveys, it just sounds like they're trying to get the poor and middle class to just agree to this shared misery while the rich keep fucking the world over.
Speaking anecdotally, I've always heard "living paycheck-to-paycheck" to mean having insufficient savings to cover a missed paycheck
I.e. if you don't get an expected paycheck then you cannot pay your monthly debts/utilities/rent and still have enough money to feed.yourself and your dependents
Which is why I'm worried it's not adequately defined. I'm definitely not paycheck to paycheck. But they could word the questions in such a way that I'd be included.
Oh, absolutely. If you click through to the Quicken press release they have a small section defining their methodology but don't list the specific questions
I wish more people appreciated the lengths that Pew et al. go through to both minimize and recognize sources of bias, confusion, etc
"We asked a group of gambling addicts if they run out of money regularily" /s
I think that's the point though. It's subjective.
Many people think the phrase applies to them because paycheck to paycheck is their budget cycle. They're not living hand to mouth.
(provided we scale back retirement savings).
But it would affect you, just longer-term than shorter-term. You don't know what things will be like when you're old, which is why most people who can do put the max amount in their IRAs, 401Ks, and HSAs. That doesn't mean they're bad people or misspending their money or not living paycheck-to-paycheck.
If you suffer in your old age because you had to cut back on retirement, that's a huge impact on your life. It's way easier to live paycheck-to-paycheck when you still can work than it is when you literally cannot and are relying on Society Security or retirement investments. I think that matters.
I'm poor as fuck, but I don't feel like I need to judge people who barely make more money than me in the context of fucking billionaires.
Also, do you have kids, because that's a huge impact on the bottom-line of people who make a decent salary.
Also, do you have kids, because that's a huge impact on the bottom-line of people who make a decent salary.
Only furry ones with four paws. And the cost of raising kids is a not insignificant factor in that decision.
Exactly my point.
Well your certainly buried your point at the end of your tirade. Sounds like you just want to argue with people on the internet that making 150k isn’t a livable salary for a person in this day and age. There’s a lot of nuance and factors to consider. Like children and life situations. People making 50k also have to deal with those same issues - and it sounds like you’re one of them. I feel bad for anyone living paycheck to paycheck because of their circumstances but at the end of the day this is life under modern capitalism.
I feel bad for anyone living paycheck to paycheck because of their circumstances but at the end of the day this is life under modern capitalism.
So have some class solidarity for fucks sake then. If you think people making $150k are the people who are the problem in this society, I think you're the one wildly out of touch.
The average CEO salary in the US is $832,576 right now, and they don't actually fucking work.
I don’t think $150k wage people are the problem at all and never said that. Overpaid CEOs and corporations are wildly disgusting and the root of a lot our problems so I guess I’m not sure what we’re arguing about.
This is like all those surveys saying that 70% of Americans have less than $5000 in a "savings account."
No shit, yields on savings accounts have been pointless for about two decades. Everyone with spare money puts liquid savings into index funds in margin accounts and runs on credit cards.
I'm not sure that they asked that directly. It looks like they asked if people are using their credit cards to cover bills more, and whether they expect to be able to fully pay the credit card bill off by the end of the year.