Americans are famous for living beyond their means. Obviously there are a lot of genuinely poor people. But there are also many that just aren’t financially responsible.
Comment on What does it mean?
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
It is a valid question.
How exactly do we quantify this concept because if its self reporting, I guarantee it includes people who have larger incomes claiming they are living pay check to pay check. These people should not be lumped with those who are struggling to afford a basic quality of life.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
wieson@feddit.org 7 hours ago
I think, if your savings can’t cover your basic needs for a month, you’re in it. If you miss one paycheck, your life basically falls apart. It also means, if you have a sudden cost (car repair, water pipe burst, or illness in the USA) that is more than a monthly paycheck (which in turn is more than your savings), you’re done.
JstAnthrUsr@feddit.org 7 hours ago
While people like to dramatize their own Situation, wouldnt it be pretty easy to define it AS people who have as much spending as they have income without being able to save [amount].
If we want to exclude people who just dont save their money: people who have as much fixed spending as they have income
Golden@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
Paycheck to paycheck can be a pretty broad term. I worked at the bottom rung in healthcare scraping by and had to endure listening to people making 3x what I made talking about when their check was gonna hit the bank. It’s easy to be broke when you have a spending problem
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
seriously. I had a client who brought in six figures per month after expenses. He still barely scraped by because he (1) was in major debt which he never paid down, only refinanced, (2) kept renovating his house unnecessarily (3) refused to stop taking vacations to Liberia (4) for some reason his wife is credibly accused of war crimes which occurred after they got married.
i was a college student and i had better credit, but he had access to more liquid funds. it was weird.
my old boss found some criminally interesting clients.