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Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

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Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#21

Post by mschuster91 »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

> Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or simply "living above one's means" play here in the grand scheme of things?

Well, if your job is somewhere in an extremely HCOL area, you only have two options: rent (or buy) somewhere extremely expensive, or rent/buy for slightly less and spend a boatload of money on transportation.

A large part of the H part in HCOL is, by the way, that banks and other investors (both domestic and, worse, foreign) have been scooping up rental real estate for way over a decade now - it began after the "fire sales" of the 2008ff crisis and now hit record highs in 2022 [1]. If politicians want to combat the poverty crisis, getting rents and real estate prices under control is one of the most important things.

As for "financial literacy" - no amount of that can help you if you get sick or, worse, if you depend with your life on epi-pens or insulin. Both saw exploding prices over the last decade.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30374372

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#22

Post by mirntyfirty »

giantg2 wrote: post #16
speeder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not in US, but I lived paycheck to paycheck some time ago when I was already in the top 5% earners of my country. The reason for it: 1. Chronic Health issues that are fairly expensive to treat, coupled with the fact I am too wealthy to get government help (this actually was my biggest money sink). 2. Renting in a place "near enough" of my workplace. (still wasn't that near, and the place was tiny, when I moved o…

I agree for the general population. But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? I have two dependents with major health issues, hitting out of pocket max every year. Still I am able to save for retirement and not live paycheck to paycheck. I do not earn 6 figures.

Decent insurance generally requires the purchaser to have either high premium or high deductible.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#23

Post by giraffe_lady »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

I'm the only one from my immediate family that 'escaped' the poverty so about half of my gross income goes for healthcare and living expenses for my parents and sometimes siblings depending.

I won't be taking questions or entertaining discussions about the appropriateness of this arrangement. But it's not that rare and it's why I don't meaningfully save.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#24

Post by [deleted] »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

[deleted]

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#25

Post by giantg2 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #20
giantg2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree for the general population. But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? I have two dependents with major health issues, hitting out of pocket max every year. Still I am able to save for retirement and not live paycheck to paycheck. I do not earn 6 figures.

>But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? Parent said he/she isn't from the US where this would be the norm. Here in the EU (Austria), in most cases you get no extra private insurance even with a high salary, just your public one, which in some cases may not be enough, especially if you optimize for quality doctors/therapists with short waiting times, which are all private, so you end up having to…

That's fair.

I guess the interesting part is that many of the people in the US want public healthcare and generally think that the international examples cover everything.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#26

Post by cercatrova »

giantg2 wrote: post #14

"Americans now say they need to be making roughly $122,000 a year to feel financially secure, more than double the national average," I don't make that much, and I support a family. The only thing rest makes me feel financially insecure is the way that IT hiring "works" today. I'm slow at code screen and my background is in irrelevant systems. Living in a terrible area for IT jobs doesn't make it any easier. If I cou…

Have you seen this list of companies that hire without whiteboard/coding interviews? You might also want to refresh your skillset into something like React and NodeJS which has a lot of jobs these days. After having done so, it is relatively easy to get jobs making into the six figures. Hope this helps.

https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#27

Post by JaimeThompson »

fartcannon wrote: post #18
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #15

The fed is in an impossible situation. Raise rates to fight inflation and the stock market tanks and we enter into a recession, unemployment. Or ignore inflation and the middle class is slowly boiled in raising gasoline, housing, and other prices. Either way the middle class and poor get screwed but the wealthy who took out ultra low interest fixed rate loans to buy up assets all over the country are going to do fine…

It's an easy fix. The poor and the middle class need a bailout. They're too big to fail.

The problem for a lot of the poor and middle class is their elected officials will not talk to them since they don't donate to them. Take Texas for example it is rare for the Texas Senators to actually talk to normal people anymore.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#29

Post by ryandrake »

giantg2 wrote: post #16
speeder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not in US, but I lived paycheck to paycheck some time ago when I was already in the top 5% earners of my country. The reason for it: 1. Chronic Health issues that are fairly expensive to treat, coupled with the fact I am too wealthy to get government help (this actually was my biggest money sink). 2. Renting in a place "near enough" of my workplace. (still wasn't that near, and the place was tiny, when I moved o…

I agree for the general population. But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? I have two dependents with major health issues, hitting out of pocket max every year. Still I am able to save for retirement and not live paycheck to paycheck. I do not earn 6 figures.

Even with decent insurance, a chronic heath issue can easily result in bankruptcy or having to live paycheck to paycheck, especially if you trip up on any of the landmines like going "out of network" or having a procedure that your insurance decides they don't want to pay for. The system is set up to extract the maximum amount of money from the patient they think they can get away with. And don't even get me started on end-of-life care which is undeniably set up specifically to soak whatever savings the elderly have set aside. I think some people, maybe who are generally healthy and don't have to deal with continuously fighting with their health insurance company and hospitals, think that having health insurance is like a magical talisman that makes all your bills disappear.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#30

Post by ProAm »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

People I know who are earning 6 figures state three things: 1) student loans, 2) housing and 3) health care. (most of these people are single income, dual income house holds can afford a 3000k mortgage or rent easily if its divided) ...a dark horse has recently entered the race and that being inflation which will pressure everything else.
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