Recent and related:

One-Third of Americans Making $250k Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31581822 - June 2022 (305 comments)

What is meant by paycheck-to-paycheck? If a worker has HSA/401k/ESPP/401k MBR deductions, they have artificially made their paycheck small. The net amount remaining goes covers living expenses, and whatever is left might be swept into after-tax investments. Money in is money out. It is paycheck to paycheck: with a great deal of investing taking up the cashflow.

If there is no technical definition, and you simply ask people if they live paycheck-to-paycheck, you could have quite different interpretations-- and the underlying financial health might differ demonstrably between survey respondents.

My family is high earning, about 4-5x the threshold they are talking about, and our budget is tight enough that it feels like it's paycheck to paycheck. We max out the 401k and IRA and invest as well, but I don't see our savings growing. High rent, taking care of my parents, and home child care almost as high as rent are the big outlays, I know these are just choices we made, we're super lucky to be in this situation, but I kind of get it. Your life starts to take the shape of the container it's in, and when you raise the cost of everything 5% a month but the income doesn't change, it does weigh on things.

Add this to the cost of homes where I live have almost doubled, from a small 1000sq foot home being priced around 1.3M now selling for over 2M and we feel like we're priced out of home ownership without doubling our salaries.

I remember being abjectly poor, and while I don't worry about money for rent or food now, I never cared about retirement back then and just had to look at what is in front of me, make rent, buy ramen, etc. I know this isn't worse, but it sure feels similar.

My family is relatively high earning, but that extra income has allowed us to access health care that is not relatively available in the US... IVF. This costs > $1200 / month, and has forced us to live paycheck to paycheck.

Of course, we could choose to promote the ideocracy cycle, but we couldn't walk away from trying at least once

Not surprising considering housing costs. It would be interesting to see more granular data though; this sort of number is nice for vapid, sensational headlines that generate lots of clicks but don’t really further our understanding of anything.

I'm playing the world's smallest violin over here.

Anybody making that much money and still living "paycheck to paycheck" is doing so by choice, or misunderstood the question and what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.

I’m curious about the geographic distribution of this 36%.

100k in Tulsa looks a lot different than 100k in SF or NYC.

People living above their means is an epidemic. Mostly, it's people trying to look rich, whatever that means, and having poor self-control (high MPC) and poor money management skills. Their income sheet maybe positive, but like most stockbrokers, they don't have a balance sheet to back it up.

34% of earners with income of 50k - 100k are living paycheck to paycheck, 36% of earners with incomes of 100k +.

Seems unwise

im the top 1% in my country (third world...) by income. working for an Israeli company. When i read those 6 figure numbers for similar positions i have (can do better probably, hire me!!!!), my eyes get glossy (and tear up a bit). 6 months of your paycheck would solve all my problems and allow me to work on my dream projects.

What the heck is Willis Tower Watson??

In 2022, 100k is not as much as it used to be. It is still a decent chunk of change, but it is not exactly life changing; especially if you live in high cost of living area ( NY comes to mind ).

Naturally, there are people who are broke regardless of how much they earn, but I personally think they are an anomaly.