Even households earning over $150,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck, Bank of America says

Fortune vis msn ^ | January 9, 2025 | Jane Thier

[RomanSoldier19]

It’s no surprise that everything is more expensive these days.

[RomanSoldier19]

[Red Badger]

$50 is the best I can do..............

[RomanSoldier19]

[rktman]

I’ll pay you Tuesday.......

[TexasGator]

I searched and found numerous edited photos with the same sign but with different car and different people.

[stanne]

My brother saved up for and bought a VW for $800 in 1975

My friends told me I was silly not making my kids work in HS

They got educated. Save in a HS job? Waiting tables? Mowing lawns. For what? To make a dent in a $60 k college loan? To pay a drop in the bucket for car expenses?

[RoosterRedux]

You can make $500,000 and be living paycheck to paycheck if you're living large. I've seen people do it.

I've seen people making a mil a year and living like they make 2.

Churchill lived like that.

[marktwain]

Living “paycheck to paycheck” is a lifestyle choice. It doesn’t have a lot to do with income.

I have known people who make $200,000 a year who live paycheck to paycheck.

People make a choice to live beyond their means, or to live within their means. Almost anyone can find a way to live under their income.

However, things outside people’s control can make this difficult. The most obvious at present is the government created inflation. It makes income worth less by devaluing the worth of the money you make.

[9YearLurker]

To learn the value of work and a good work ethic.

Lots of the self-made mega wealthy make their kids work at summer jobs through high school.

[yldstrk]

A budget is a wonderful thing. And it’s fun.

[Antoninus]

If they are, it’s because they’re saddled with too much debt or live in an ultra-high-cost city (or California).

[RomanSoldier19]

[alloysteel]

Well, I am relieved that I do not face the burden these people earning $150,000 a year wrestle with every day. When I run out of money, I just quit spending for the month.

[kiryandil]

Aren’t you special?

Wait right here while I go look for one of my Gold Stars for you.

[Antoninus]

My friends told me I was silly not making my kids work in HS

My kids worked in HS (HS = homeschool in our case). By age 19, all of them were in college paying their own way and had cars--completely paid off.

Fancy that.

[CFW]

An amazing 180 in reporting on the economy! What’s changed in the past few days?

[RoosterRedux]

I've been working since I was a kid—never had an allowance and never wanted one. It's good for kids to work; they learn discipline, money management, and responsibility. Learning how to work is great preparation for getting and keeping a job after finishing school.

I feel sorry for kids who miss out on that experience.

[zeestephen]

$100 - adjusted for inflation since October 1929...

$1,825.

[stanne]

“To learn the value of work and a good work ethic.

Lots of the self-made mega wealthy make their kids work at summer jobs through high school.”

Pshaw. Ya. I got a lot of that same crap

They are excellent workers highly valued in their professions. My parents made me work at a restaurant on Long Island in the ‘70s. The only thing I got out of it was the you can’t tell me that there’s no such thing as the mafia, I don’t want to be a divorced waitress with 4 kids with 4 different last names and I will educate mint kids and not make them work in high school if that’s not what they want to do

[ronniesgal]

try to live within your means.