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> According to surveys most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, including most making over $100k/year [1][2] You can safely ignore those surveys. They all pro
by PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> According to surveys most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, including most making over $100k/year [1][2]
You can safely ignore those surveys. They all produce wildly different results for the number of people living "paycheck to paycheck" because they use intentionally vague definitions of "paycheck to paycheck".
But even if we ignore that and assume that most people are living paycheck to paycheck whether they make $50K or $100+K per year, how would you explain that? If you survey people making $50K and people make over $100K and they're both spending the same percentage of their paycheck, what is causing the expenses to grow so rapidly between the two vastly different income levels?
If you want further proof that these numbers are basically made up, check the "Related" column for the Fortune article. They recommend a second article that says 41% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, right underneath the big headline that over half of Americans earning >$100K are living Paycheck to Paycheck.
If >50% of Americans earning >$100K are living paycheck-to-paycheck, while only 41% of all Americans of any income level are living paycheck-to-paycheck, that would imply that people earning >$100K are more likely to be living paycheck to paycheck.
Or it would imply that these surveys are useless. They're designed to generate clickbait headlines.
- shmatt 4y agoHow would you explain that? Most people I know (NYC Metro Area low 6 figure earners) who aren't, are getting a monthly stipend from their parents People get high paying jobs then rent a 1br for $4,000 (at that price its not even that nice a 1 br) Yes they could make $120k and live with room-mates, but how many Americans do something like that?
- fragmede 4y agoIn San Francisco, roommates are expected, and many even actually like it, with community events and such.
- anonymouskimmer 4y agoAnd you can still get a 1 bedroom within commuting distance for less than $2k.
- ch4s3 4y agoYou're talking about one of the 5 highest cost of living cities in the WORLD, that goes out of it's way to make housing more scarce and more expensive. This doesn't generalize to the rest of the country.
- anonymouskimmer 4y agoI would attempt to explain the "living paycheck to paycheck" issue for higher earners by saying that many of them are putting most of their excess monthly pay into retirement savings. If they had instead put that excess monthly pay into a regular savings account that they could easily withdraw from without penalty, they'd have a lot less paper wealth, but would also technically no longer be "living paycheck to paycheck". To avoid this distortion voluntary retirement savings should be treated as regular savings in the "paycheck to paycheck" calculation. As an aside: $100k+ has been used as a benchmark for higher earners for years now. It's probably time to bump it to $150k or so.