Goldman Sachs: 40% of $400-500K and $500K+ households “live paycheck to paycheck”
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Anonymous
| What kind of person earning $500k/yr would waste their time filling out a stupid GS survey? |
Anonymous
| Guys in that income level, I don’t believe people answered this truly “paycheck to paycheck” meaning they don’t have any emergency savings and would be at a food bank if they lost their job. Look at all of the PP responses - people are putting money into 401ks and 529s. I don’t believe for a minute people in that income bracket don’t have savings. Technically those things are optional. |
Anonymous
Still does not make sense to me people would not have some sort of liquid savings at that income level, like a HYSA. |
Anonymous
This is rich people convincing themselves that they are not rich so they can complain about not having enough, paying too much in taxes and the poor people who don’t pay their “fair share.” |
Anonymous
and were drunk when you posted this? I assume that you are joking but I'm blown away by this thread. HHI 500-700K and we cannot possibly spend all of our take home even after maxing all that stuff out. But we live in a very modest house. I think that makes a huge difference. |
Anonymous
Not to pile on the stereotypes but to me, they look like they are spending some other country's oil money. |
Anonymous
Are you not reading how everyone is maxing out their 401k, HSA, 529, iRA…? Sounds like they have pretty good financial acumen to me. I think their use of “paycheck to paycheck” is not the traditional use. |
Anonymous
NP- It's the wrong use. If you can easily transfer money to cover expenses then you are not paycheck to paycheck. |
Anonymous
You have to monitor their credit. I get monthly reports and updates if there's an unusual credit charge or a new application. They know this. It's like being married to a child who can't control themselves. |
Anonymous
Perhaps the people inclined to post on the Money and Finances board are not the ones mismanaging their money and living paycheck to paycheck. |
Anonymous
| It seems that most people in the wealthy DMV suburbs (Bethesda, McLean, etc.) are making something like $300-$600 in income, mostly depending on whether both spouses work. It is not possible to afford a $2.5M home mortgage, two private school tuitions followed by full-pay college, 2-3 $50K cars, fund the 401(K), pay for cleaners / lawn, and maintain a "high end" lifestyle (clothes, charity giving, shops, dining) and have anything left. Math: $10K mortgage; $2K car payments; $8K tuition; $3K 401(K) = $276 a year or around $425 pre-tax. You have to cut something or have family money. I assume in most cases it's family money--mainly grandparents paying tuition. It's really tuition that is the dagger. |
Anonymous
I was mocking the PP who makes $2M or whatever and said they’re still paycheck to paycheck but that went over your head. |
Anonymous
I laughed PP. Some people are just dense and don’t get the joke. While folks are right that many of these high income earners are not truly “paycheck to paycheck”, they are only one job loss and extended unemployment away from materially falling out of this lifestyle. So yes, they may be funding a full 401k, 529, and maybe private school, but those are not enough to fully retire on or replace their income if there’s a job loss. Yes, they’d likely have to move and sell the $2+ million home walking away with 30-50% equity. I’m not going to shed tears over this but I do sympathize with the fact that their financial position is not as strong as their income would suggest. It’s worse for the true middle class, which probably can’t fully find any of these things and has few assets and lots of debt and leases. |
Anonymous
THAT IS NOT PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK. Sorry for yelling but come on. |
Anonymous
You should go on a House Hunters episode with that bio. 😆 |