Why do so many americans live paycheck to paycheck despite high salaries and resonable cost of living?

[Will be deleted]

Some seems to say that over half americans, maybe up to 60-70% live paycheck to paycheck including many with salaries above $100k.

Yet even including things like cars, healthcare and student debt americans probably come ahead people of other countries due to higher wages and lower taxes and some things like houses even seems cheaper in USA than peer countries.

It do seems to me that americans live more extravegant than people in peer countries but is that the reason for financial struggle?

[Will be deleted]

Postat inițial de Eld3r:

Postat inițial de Will be deleted:

Likely the people who actually manage to earn that much are more disicplined than average.

i disagree and even mentioned that i have in-laws who make 50% more than me who struggle and are not investing that much

To be fair the people who seems to do the best in USA seems to have some sort of immigration background so I guess culture that don't value savings is partly behind it.

[Coinkydink]

Its all a crazy big debt party and they have bee passing the debt on to folks abroad.

It's on the way back home now, with added interest.

[Will be deleted]

You can probably live anywhere in USA on like $60k a year after taxes, sure probably going to be rather limited in the most expensive cities and it is possible to get it down further by for example living in car which can let you save a lot of money while working in like San Fransico where you can get massive salaries and once saved enough buy like a house and live somewhere much cheaper.

In Europe you can't save anywhere the amount you can save in USA mostly due to taxes being much higher, like it is possible to save more a year in USA than Europeans get after tax and after a decade you can like move to europe and not even have to work.

Like those jobs paying $200k which give about $130k after tax in europe maybe give $60-70k after tax.

[Freqsync]

2k seasonal job. 15k Fulltime 9-5. 18K 8pm-8am. 22K beginning tech. 26K Kept personnel. 30K Desk. 40K driving permissions to work through region. 50K Office. 60K 2 separate duties in two different offices not your own. 75K Air travel. Beyond this become a vessel or champion to a cause and watch how your seen with tax right off abilities.

[Will be deleted]

Tech yes

[xjulep]

Postat inițial de Will be deleted:

Postat inițial de the vampire of time and memory:

unless you're a millionaire there's no way you're coming ahead considering healthcare, education and the insane tipping culture costs

My american co-workers earn around $200k and that put them far ahead of people doing the same job in my country. So No you don’t need to be millionare, just highly paid.

> The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median weekly personal income of $1,037 for full-time workers in the United States in Q1 2022

> The average American renter pays $1,326 a month. For those looking to move, prices are even higher. The average asking rent is now $1,900 , with single-family houses averaging $2,018 a month, while a typical apartment costs an $1,659

[xjulep]

People need to stop thinking the population can nickel and dime its way out of this problem. The bottom half of America owns only 3% of the wealth. Capitalism is based on the accumulation of wealth to an increasingly small proportion of investors, who (actual professional investors, not people with a retirement account, which is really a handout to real investors by providing a steady stream of “dumb money”) are “rewarded” for efficiently assigning business capital (raising prices and firing people, and especially eliminating competition by merging and acquisitions) with a larger share of equity. Equity means owning shares of companies. In other words, real wealth means owning the companies that in turn own the American economy and real estate. Real wealth has nothing to do with buying cars and fast food. It’s simply ownership and control of the productive processes in society. And this ownership is increasingly concentrated. That’s how capitalism works, not by “budgeting” and “saving”. In fact the Fed explicitly considers “excess savings” a bad thing. You can and should watch the FOMC meetings online.

[JD]

That's because our government is sending all of our money overseas.

[xjulep]

Another thing is if your “solution” physically cannot work for 50%+ of the population, then it’s not a solution.

Saying
1. Just start a business
2. Just stop spending money
3. Just enter [constrained labor supply industry like software development]

Is equivalent to saying the foolproof strategy to winning musical chairs is to just sit down before the guy next to you. At the societal level it’s inherently impossible

[Ruckman_Void]

People are so fast to use words they don't mean the definition of...

Love
Hate

Fascist


Freedom



Responsibility

[tf2 pomson enjoyer #FIXVACPLS]

Postat inițial de Ruckman_Void:

People are so fast to use words they don't mean the definition of...

Love
Hate

Fascist


Freedom



Responsibility

Responsibility? Responsibility of what????

[Will be deleted]

How do actually people under median income actually live in USA? Can’t be fun

[mrunuick]

Postat inițial de Will be deleted:

How do actually people under median income actually live in USA? Can’t be fun

Sacrifices, help from others, and budgeting. In extreme cases things like breaking an arm become questions about if it's worth going to the hospital or not.

[Animus]

Tbh I'm a bit surprised OP's still here since they said they had planned to delete their account..

[Will be deleted]

Postat inițial de Animus:

Tbh I'm a bit surprised OP's still here since they said they had planned to delete their account..

It take time for support to answer the request.