The median US household has $8k in checking+savings accounts, three months of expenses saved, and a net worth of $193k and therefore is probably not "living pay

The median US household has $8k in checking+savings accounts, three months of expenses saved, and a net worth of $193k and therefore is probably not "living paycheck to paycheck" in the sense you meant. Also, "living paycheck to paycheck" is a made up status with no clear definition, invented by payday loan companies for lobbying purposes. However, many Americans do say on surveys that they are doing it. This happens even if they say their income is $200k/year. The likely explanation for this is that nobody knows what it means and are answering something like "if I missed a paycheck I'd feel bad about it". https://twitter.com/besttrousers/status/1753260817389162516 https://twitter.com/besttrousers/status/1753260817389162516 A funny thing that happens with this discourse is that it comes up all the time, and every single time a hundred people reply those numbers are a trick because of outlier rich people, and then it turns out none of them know what a median is.