I don’t see how that’s possible unless you have a huge family, you have some sort of chronic disease that insurance doesn’t cover, or you’re wildly irresponsible. Even in a high cost-of-living area, a normal family of four could live quite comfortably on that much money and still save some of it.
(I don’t think that many high-earning people are wildly irresponsible. I suspect that this statistic isn’t right.)
When people hear “living paycheck to paycheck” they automatically assume it means barely making enough money for essentials. It for sure can mean that, but often people living paycheck to paycheck make good money, they just don’t live within their means. It’s not hard to buy a nicer house and a nicer car than your can really afford, and run up credit card debt, and find yourself in a situation where you can’t pay your bills because you’re overextended, even with a good salary.
I live in a one-bedroom in midtown Manhattan. It costs me about a hundred dollars a day and I’m still saving money on my software developer salary.
That’s pretty steep for a 1 bedroom apartment, 3000ish I assume based on what you said, and I’m guessing it’s not that big. I meanwhile live in a college town in the middle of nowhere and my 3 bedroom house with a garage and basement is 2100 a month.
You’re software developer tho. So you’re a rich person anyways. You don’t understand the struggle
I continually rotate debt through 0% interest deals on credit cards, it’s how I’ve paid for a lot of my home improvements.
Paid for a new roof and awning on the house that way, currently paying for solar panels and a large electrical project.
If a credit card offers me 0% interest for a year, why WOULDN’T I do that instead of paying cash?
I have three different cards now that every time I pay them off they’re like “Heyyyy… here’s some balance transfer checks… 0% until January '25…”
A few additional things to consider:
- Accrued debt
- Areas with highest cost of living tend to also be areas with relatively high population density (San Francisco is usually the go-to example for this)
- Inflexibility of living in austerity
- Intuit benefits from scaring people in the lower and middle economic classes
