73% of households report they are personally doing “Okay or better” financially.
58% of registered voters say they are living paycheck to paycheck.
Literally every self-reported metric about the economy contradicts the next one.
It’s all down to who you ask, and how you word it. Some polls have some really convoluted wording to try to get the number they want.
I asked my buddy at work how he was doing and he said “I need to get this money, ya know? It’s tight.” Meanwhile, he’s paying weekly for what I pay monthly for a car. My phones are always bought secondhand and for the most part I only blow money on videogames.
You can be “doing good” financially because you make enough money to afford the lifestyle you want while “living paycheck to paycheck” because you spend 100% on your lifestyle.
73% of households report they are personally doing “Okay or better” financially.
I call absolute bullshit. There is no way that could possibly be representative.
Well it depends on your definition of “OK” and it’s a matter of perspective.
If someone views themselves as financially “OK” because they can make it in to the next month with at least as much money as they started, even if that amount is £0, then they’re OK.
Whatever you read in to the statistic, the implication is that 27% aren’t OK and that is absolutely terrible.
Being “ok” is a subjective take for many reasons.
Being “paycheck to paycheck” is objective and easy to formulate an observation.
The two only have to interconnect through subject matter, not in measure.
That number seems really low…and also not news. I’m 40 years old, and never met anyone who WASN’T living paycheck to paycheck.
I don’t get out much, so I have no clue how others are doing. I’ll admit that shit sucks right now, but I haven’t been living paycheck to paycheck since working part time in my early 20s over a decade ago. I live in a low COL area and make about $35-$40,000 a year. I only spend maybe $15,000 a year. I may never be able to buy a house, but I’m far off from paycheck to paycheck. It makes me wonder if people who are living that way are maybe just living outside of their means?
It makes me wonder if people who are living that way are maybe just living outside of their means?
Could also be a large percentage of people have significant student loans and/or medical debt.
Or just shit luck. A string of expensive things breaking can put you in a hole.
In New Zealand there is no such thing as a low COL area, and where there is, it is a small village in the middle of nowhere that has literally no job openings available.
Dual income, no kids. Not living paycheck to paycheck.
But yeah, all of our friends are single and living paycheck to paycheck.
Single (but pretty good) income, and also not paycheck to paycheck. I’ve got an extra couple of paychecks in the bank and could draw off my retirement for quite a while because I put everything except a couple of paychecks ahead into either retirement or into paying off my house. Pretty much all my friends are living paycheck to paycheck though.
I grew up poor as hell so I’m doing my damnedest to actually have some time to relax.
I don’t have a lot of money, that’s for sure, but I’m not living paycheck to paycheck either.
Good for you
