Goldman Sachs: 40% of $400-500K and $500K+ households “live paycheck to paycheck”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume at that income level they mean they aren't very liquid and therefore rely on each paycheck to pay their bills. They just don't want to sell off property or stock/bonds, but they could if they lost their income, so it's not really paycheck to paycheck like it would be for low-income families.

I don’t think that’s what it showed. People living paycheck to paycheck usually means they have little to no backup if they lost the paycheck.

If those families with a $500,000 income bought an expensive $2.5 million dollar home, bought two high end cars, kids go to expensive everything including schools, those club sports, camps, vacations, they are broke.

The bank said their mortgage was fine, leasing a car was fine on their income. Yeah, if nothing comes up unexpectedly. It’s doubtful they are saving anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, we save about 150K a year through deductions from our checks. There are months we're sort of paycheck to paycheck (neber doing without, but making different decisions) but this is just not accurate in terms of what paycheck to paycheck means, unless someone has taken out a 3m mortgage.

That means you are not spending every dollar you make and it doesn’t count as paycheck to paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ I should add we clean our own house and rake our own leaves. When DS goes to college next year we might change that to the tune of a few thousand a year, but for now it's important he have some chores and see us doing them too. Just our take.

You might want to keep those chores for yourself. Great exercise and senses of accomplishments. I don’t mind either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

Similar. We make 3M/yr but it's almost entirely stock. In terms of cash by the time we put 70k each in 401k, back door roth, max HSA, 10k per kid in 529, 60k in brokerage, then there's only enough cash left to pay all the bills and live an UMC lifestyle. Our NW is growing rapidly, but it takes discipline to never dip into the investments and fit our life into the cash flow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a 7 figure HHI and still rely on our jobs to pay the bills—is that what it means to live paycheck to paycheck?

No. In reality, living paycheck to paycheck would mean no savings, retirement, etc.

People who truly live paycheck to paycheck often resort to payday lenders or get overdraft fees for insufficient funds because their wage doesn't allow them to make it through the week.

[Anonymous]

“hand to mouth on a higher level”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

Similar. We make 3M/yr but it's almost entirely stock. In terms of cash by the time we put 70k each in 401k, back door roth, max HSA, 10k per kid in 529, 60k in brokerage, then there's only enough cash left to pay all the bills and live an UMC lifestyle. Our NW is growing rapidly, but it takes discipline to never dip into the investments and fit our life into the cash flow.

Same except we make $10M/yr and I’m a historian and my spouse keeps bees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make about $450k. We max out most deductions, have a $4,800 mortgage payment, no daycare or debt and we pay cash for cars and vacations, and I can not fathom paying for a nanny, dual private, country club, and cleaning. When college comes we have savings. No quarterly tax payments (we're regular employees).

Yup exactly this middle class lifestyle

4800 mortgage is not Mc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

Similar. We make 3M/yr but it's almost entirely stock. In terms of cash by the time we put 70k each in 401k, back door roth, max HSA, 10k per kid in 529, 60k in brokerage, then there's only enough cash left to pay all the bills and live an UMC lifestyle. Our NW is growing rapidly, but it takes discipline to never dip into the investments and fit our life into the cash flow.

Not umc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

Similar. We make 3M/yr but it's almost entirely stock. In terms of cash by the time we put 70k each in 401k, back door roth, max HSA, 10k per kid in 529, 60k in brokerage, then there's only enough cash left to pay all the bills and live an UMC lifestyle. Our NW is growing rapidly, but it takes discipline to never dip into the investments and fit our life into the cash flow.

Same except we make $10M/yr and I’m a historian and my spouse keeps bees

lol

[Anonymous]

It’s greed for a lifestyle and for some an inability to budget well.

It is not that hard maintain a 3-6 month emergency fund at those incomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy to me, see page 20:

https://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdf?view=true

Lots of wild details in this document on “The Future of Retirement”

I can relate. We are in the same income bracket. We live paycheck to paycheck after maxing out 401k, hsa, saving 10k per kid in 529, saving 60k in our brokerage account. We don’t have much left.

Similar. We'd live paycheck to paycheck, no matter how much we make, because my spouse is an overspender and would be at any income level. Instead of one country club and house, we'd have five. I max out 401k, 529 plans ($19k per kid per year), and put over $50k per year into my brokerage account; spouse can't access any of those accounts. We are effectively broke in our joint checking account at the end of most months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume at that income level they mean they aren't very liquid and therefore rely on each paycheck to pay their bills. They just don't want to sell off property or stock/bonds, but they could if they lost their income, so it's not really paycheck to paycheck like it would be for low-income families.

I assume the same thing.

I have $350k salary + $250k bonus/stock comp, and $9.2M 70/30 portfolio. DW is SAH and I work from home. I max all tax advantaged retirement savings and after taxes my two week takehome paycheck is about $8500. We spend more than this on mortgage (3.8%), expenses, hobbies/collecting, gifts, travel. So we use some of our personal low interest LOC backed by our assets, maybe an additional $10k-$15k per month. But that is under what annual bonus totals so the lump sum bump effectively erases it. Our portfolio is up $2.5 million in the last 2 years and we have taken nothing from it so it continues to compound. We are early 50s. So i guess you could say we live paycheck to paycheck but in a very different way than what that means to most people.

[Anonymous]

We make around 650k but invest 250k. We have it all taken out of paychecks and often have very little in checking by the next paycheck. If it’s not there, we can’t spend it.