5 ms·
Paycheck to paycheck surveys are just vibes, last time these companies ran this survey 36% of people making over $250k said they were living paycheck to paychec
by Kylekramer 3y ago
Paycheck to paycheck surveys are just vibes, last time these companies ran this survey 36% of people making over $250k said they were living paycheck to paycheck: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/03/wealthier-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-after-inflation-spike.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/03/wealthier-americans-live-pay...
It is cool for young people to doom over money and spend all day looking at much richer people on on social media. Main character syndrome.
- endisneigh 3y agothe fact that this post is downvoted shows how much of a bubble HN is, lol.
- lbotos 3y agoSomeone could be Making 250k and absolutely be living paycheck to paycheck. Yes, I agree with your sentiment that its "different" than being "poor" but that's the media for ya.
- hellotomyrars 3y agoI understand the point though. Living paycheck to paycheck making 250K is either a gross mismanagement of finances, or a dishonest view of them. The guy making 250K a year isn’t worried about not being able to put food on the table. But maybe he has a monthly car payment that is more than the person making 28k a year pays per month in rent.
- cj 3y agoIf it’s just a survey, I would answer “yes” to living paycheck to paycheck. But that’s only because I’m automatically investing 70% of my paycheck so I never have more than a few weeks of expenses in cash. I can imagine getting very biased results depending on how to survey is worded. In my case, an unexpected expense just means I take a short term margin loan against my portfolio (at an insane interest rate) until my next paycheck.
- maxerickson 3y agoHaving resources you can draw on (an asset you can take a margin loan against is a resource you can draw on) is exactly what "paycheck to paycheck" doesn't mean.
- cj 3y agoI agree. The point of my comment was that wording of survey questions can result in biased results.
- mikestew 3y ago"I have so much excess income that I invest most of it". I don't think you're grokking the common definition of "paycheck-to-paycheck", or are willfully ignoring it to make a point (and doing so poorly).
- cj 3y ago> to make a point (and doing so poorly). The point I’m trying to make is bias in surveys
- darth_avocado 3y ago250k in NYC or SF Bay Area is really 150k after taxes. After insurance and other usual expenses, 10k/month. Rents in these cities can be expensive and if you have dependents then 10k suddenly is not a lot of money. Its not paycheck to paycheck always, but can totally be.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoEnough space for a family means something like $5k-7k/month rent. Even with 10k/mo the income rapidly vanishes. Housing and income reform is deeply needed nationwide.
- michaelt 3y agoIf that's true of 36% of them then the definition of "paycheck to paycheck" is so broad as to be meaningless. Woe is me, after paying for my eight children's horse riding lessons, getting an opera house named after me, and paying for the handmade rigging that my yacht's crew say urgently needs to be replaced, I'm barely making ends meet! Why won't Biden do something about the outrageous increases in the cost of helicopter fuel? Am I living paycheck to paycheck?
- lbotos 3y agoPeople making 250k are not getting opera houses named after them :D
- kitsunesoba 3y agoAnd are very likely living in high CoL areas where a large chunk of that is swallowed by housing, transportation, etc. It's functionally similar to a much lower salary in a lower CoL area. That said even if someone in a low CoL area is pulling 250k, it's not "horseriding lessons eight kids and a yacht" money, not unless the individual/couple in question is drowning in debt. Don't get me wrong, $250k isn't a "struggling" salary anywhere but it's also not past the threshold where one can stop being responsible with money and blow it on wealthy people things on the regular, especially if that's joint income from a couple with kids.
- michaelt 3y agoNot with helicopter fuel as expensive as it is, you're right.
- throwawaycptlsm 3y ago[flagged]
- mancerayder 3y agoYou can make 250K a year and spend half of your take-home pay on rent, in fact that's pretty normal in HCOL areas. With the leftovers you have life, including Uber, groceries, dinner, etc. People love cities, but dense cities are massively expensive for doing day to day normal things. Sure, you could live one hour away from work to save money, you can stop drinking, you can only cook at home, you could ride a bike, you could buy used clothing, etc etc. But life is short if that stuff annoys you.
- maxerickson 3y agoDoes it really take a 1 hour commute to avoid $6,000 rent? There's of course lots of room to argue about what the likely take home pay on $250k is, but many of the arguments involve choices that sort of undermine the claim that someone is living paycheck to paycheck.
- andrewprock 3y agoIf you have take home pay of $120k per year, half of that going to rent would be $5k. Spending that much on rent would only be normal in SF if you were renting a 5 bedroom. Normally people renting a 5 bedroom would be housing a family of four - or more. I posit that it is not normal for a young adult in SF to have a family of four.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mfer 3y agoYou can make 250k a year, eat out every day, buy a starbucks coffee every morning, regularly have new clothes, etc. This is all expensive. Consider the cost different with cooking your own meals and eating out for every meal. Lifestyle choices make a big difference in living paycheck to paycheck for many (not all).
- 2c2c2c 3y agoyou can live like this in SF on 150k
- rmorey 3y agoOnly like 4% of Americans are making that much anyway - median income for 25-34 year olds is ~70-80k
- Jtsummers 3y ago> median income for 25-34 year olds is ~70-80k https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/the-average-salary-by-age-in-the-u.s.-are-you-making-what-you-should-be https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/the-average-salary-by-age-in... No, it's not $70-80k. Median in that age range is $52k (numbers are from 2022 Q3).