CNBC: Close to half of rich Americans are living paycheck to paycheck

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two thoughts:

it sounds like it was self-reporting, so the six figure earners probably don’t know what they’re talking about.

although, since that’s not household income perhaps a family with a sole income earner could be closer to living paycheck to paycheck - ie. not cashing out that vacation fund, or changing their 401k contributions, or making any changes at all in their spending habits - than they used to be

also: gas is expensive and large suvs cost money

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I won’t argue that many or most six-figure earners shouldn’t be considered “rich,” but in some high-cost places like San Jose $100k/year is definitely less than the median household income, so I could see why some of those folks are having trouble making ends meet.

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It would probably also be helpful to know what sort of credit options they have, in terms of size and in terms of interest rates.

It’s never a good sign to be borrowing for immediate subsistence purposes; but there’s a lot of daylight between ‘had to pull month’s expenses from HELOC’ and ‘if I can’t scrounge up rent by Friday I’ll have to deal with the payday loan joint’ in terms of what an interruption in income is going to end up costing you.

I don’t doubt that there are some fairly wealthy-looking people who are already in about as much debt as anyone is willing to extend to them in order to look wealthy; and they both have no remaining good options and potentially have even more outstanding liabilities since they were deemed qualified for a big mortgage and a vehicle lease agreement and a high limit credit card and so on; but in general financial services are very much one of those ‘being poor is not cheap’ genres.

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That was my first thought…recently I was hanging with a professional couple with 2 young kids, both parents earn a really good living. They started talking about how it feels like there’s never any money, which I get that kids are expensive. But then it turns out they’re still putting money towards retirement and vacation savings and college savings for the kids. They’ve had to stop contributing to their “boat” account for now (they’d been hoping to buy a boat.)
Phrases like “never any money” and “paycheck to paycheck” mean very different things to people!

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“Stop contributing to your “boat” account for now” sounds like some of the advice gig economy folks get when they talk about a visit to the dentist being an out-of-reach luxury.

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It would be especially easy if they tried to do something like own a home. More than a few areas where a not especially ostentatious house will run you north of a million bucks; which would mean that even a (hypothetical) zero-interest mortgage would consume half your income on a 20 year term.

Not so badly off by a long way as someone who pays half their income to deal with a slumlord in some roach motel of an apartment on the get-murdered side of town; but $100k is hardly plutocratic levels of money if you want to do things that have historically been described more toward ‘comfortable’ than ‘wealthy’.

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I know a few of these people described. If you are carrying $200-$300k in student debt and trying to live like you think “wealthy adult people” should live, it is really easy to get to the just-barely-making-it zone. Buy a house, a couple cars and pay your loan payment and you are pretty strapped for everything else. It’s a weird ass world we are living in. Additionally, in most places earning a 6 figure income doesn’t really make you wealthy. Earning that for a couple decades and managing it well, yeah, that will do it. But for those starting out, it is really tough.

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Self reporting PLUS saying (or even just claiming) they regularly make north of 100k.

Not everyone who makes or made that much cash are financial geniuses. Lottery winners and pro athletes tend to burn through their cash and not save it very well usually for example. Many people fall ass backward into that kind of money (athletes, actors, musicians who actually made alot of money which in general is kinda rare, kids born into money, those who get a major winfall from legal settlements etc etc).

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i do totally get that. it’s also still different when you could downsize, trade in the car, cancel some of those expenses, etc. the stress of maintaining a lifestyle is very real - especially living in a society that makes being actually poor so difficult.

it’s also different than the stress of: will i be turned out on the street, or do i need a third job to feed the kids.

i can’t even imagine what retail and service workers do. i have a friend who’s a professor out that way, and he house shares to make it work. to me, that’s an insane situation for a professional who’s spent a lifetime to get that far

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I suspect this describes many of my neighbors. I know what they do for a living and see all their toys, and unless they have family money or a big source of external income, they are leveraged to the hilt.

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Millennials get bashed for occasionally buying $7 avocado toast, as if that, and not crippling student debt and soaring housing costs might play a role in their financial woes.
But in all those discussions of the “economic anxiety” driving the fascist class in this country, I’ve never once heard anyone recommend they stop buying all those four wheelers or snowmobiles, or paying to modify their trucks into “coal rollers.”
Wonder what that’s all about. :thinking:

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See also: wakeboard boats, ATVs (with enclosed trailers); RVs, expensive guitars, motorcycles, fishing boats etc.

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All that.
My previous insurance agent, who, they also do retirement planning, once confessed to me how frustrating it was for her when she’d be asking clients in their 40s and 50s if maybe they wanted to start putting money in an IRA or something and they’d say they couldn’t afford it, then come in 2 months later needing insurance for a new (to them, at least) RV or motorboat or some other thing. :woman_shrugging:t2:

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