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

cnbc.com

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

#11

Post by ed25519FUUU »

ozzythecat wrote: post #9

These kinds of articles tell maybe half the story. In my early 20s, I was earning $120K a year while living in rural Texas. I had an expensive apartment (3 bedroom), a leased Lexus IS, and spent lavishly. I also got a second car (a Honda Fit) for grocery store runs. If this sounds absurd, yeah I know. 2 years of this and I had some 401K savings but no after tax investments. I wasn’t even maxing out the company match.…

This is a hard story to hear because even a little bit of investment over the past 10 years of quantitative easing means you'd have some pretty big returns.

Real-estate, stock market, bonds, literally anything you could throw a dart at is up big over the last 10 years.

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

#12

Post by speeder »

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 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 out a lot of furniture fit inside a hatchback car).

3. Constant inflation + health issues I mentioned before that require me have a diet of items that are more expensive. (I can't live off ramen...).

4. Thankfully this part is over, but some years ago there was the student debts too, at one point I had to pay to service my debt literally half of all my earnings, and had to pay food and rent with the other half.

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

#14

Post by giantg2 »

"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 could easily switch jobs and retain a similar salary, then I would feel good.

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

#15

Post by ed25519FUUU »

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.

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

#16

Post by giantg2 »

speeder wrote: post #12
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 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.

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

#17

Post by colechristensen »

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…

There’s a difference between “unable” and “not doing”.

I’ve been in this position from time to time, and it always came down to making expensive choices or recovering from an unexpected necessary large expense.

I might have a few financial regrets but when it comes down to it, spending as much as I made was always just a choice I could have changed at any time.

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

#18

Post by fartcannon »

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.

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

#19

Post by giantg2 »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #13
kitkat_new wrote: post #3

guess who will suffer most from global warming

The rich people who are still buying ocean-front property?

I had a business professor joke that his house that was off the beach would be worth a fortune for his grand kids because it would end up being waterfront.

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

#20

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

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.

>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 dig into your savings if you care about your health (who doesn't?).

Still, at least even the poor and unemployed have access to half decent healthcare without going bankrupt so there's at least one silver lining.

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