Let me play devil's advocate. What if living paycheck-to-paycheck is a consequence of having no health coverage? Think about it. If you're on a low income tha

Let me play devil's advocate. What if living paycheck-to-paycheck is a consequence of having no health coverage? Think about it. If you're on a low income that largely matches your outgoings, bills of thousands of dollars will wipe you out regardless of whether or not you save. So why save? You may just reduce any benefits you get from the state or Federal government (medical or otherwise) and those will be wiped out anyway. So you may as well spend now. Consider, the Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the few times lower income households can make large purchases (and there's evidence of this in TV purchases and elsewhere).