Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
Inflation does not discriminate based on income. According to a new Bloomberg report, over one-third of Americans earning at least $250,000 annually are living paycheck to paycheck. Only 5% of the nation earns over $250,000 per year, and this is who the politicians would call “the rich.” One in ten noted that they struggled to cover their household expenses in April.
This is especially true for Millennials who lack decades of savings and were forced to purchase housing and other big-ticket items at the historically high price levels. Among those earning $250,000 or more per year, 55.4% of Millennials reported living paycheck to paycheck compared to 26% of Boomers. In the $100,000 to $150,000 income range, 63% of Millennials reported an inability to save compared to 26% of Boomers.
Living paycheck to paycheck comes with the risk of slipping into debt. The Federal Reserve recently reported that 78% of Americans believed they were living comfortably financially, but they may be seeing the situation through rose-colored glasses. One in nine respondents from the same Fed survey admitted that they could not afford a mere $400 emergency expense. In this current economy, the wise are reassessing their spending as inflation is not expected to decline anytime soon.
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Cry me a river.
I manage to live on less than $19,000/year. If someone can’t balance a budget with >10x my income, TFB.
“less than $19,000/year”
is that a pension? does that include rent/mortgage/car? are you out in the sticks?
Passive income.
yes
yes
I made $18500 washing glassware as a research assistant (aka indentured servant) in Boston, an expensive place to live.
But it was Haaavaahd!!!
On happier news, and more important than poor rich people:
Our lost indoor cat showed up happy and healthy today after 4 days outside.
“Our lost indoor cat showed up happy and healthy today after 4 days outside.”
Great!
Careful, it has had a taste of freedom…. 🙂
She is a fat slob that seemed to be happy crashing on the couch and clean the plate of free food handout I gave her. Just like some humans, actually. I don’t think she cares much about freedom…
free food, free couch, she has all the freedom she can handle.
Good thing cats can’t vote. They’d vote Democrat for certain!
Happy to hear the cat returned home. I was very confident it would from past experience. Cats are very in tune with the spiritual side. Cats know home, the place they are loved and needed.
If male “happy and healthy” means one thing and if female that h&h means you got kittens in your future. Dogs have owners and cats have servants and it’s not indentured but permanent. Good thing there is compensation, though: fascinating and endearing cat behavior!
Our cat was an abandoned little kitten we found eating birdseed in our backyard. According to the vet, she had just about everything wrong with her she could have and still be alive. Couldn’t even meow–made the effort but no sound came out. This vet had a policy of discounts for rescue animals. Thank goodness.
Since then, I guess her 13 weeks of life outside was enough for Sophie, as she is terrified of the outdoors. Likes to sit in the doorway with the door open a few inches, and will go out a few feet from the door if one of us is outside with her, but if we walk inside she zooms in. Close the door with her outside, and she runs to the door and leans on it until it opens.
One exception. While we were outside to see the eclipse she came out. Apparently brave in the dark, she quietly began exploring the yard. Lots of bushes and places to hide. Farthest and longest she’s been outside since we adopted her six years ago.
How does it feel?
Damn
was telling a guy, “the first step to saving money is …” and he was leaning forward eagerly, “… to stop spending it”, and he leaned away disappointed.
and honestly, why would they live any other way? they’ve been surrounded by real and fake prosperity all their lives, to them that’s just the way the world is. and if worst comes to worst and the wild ravings of their elders about “consequences” and “poverty” come to pass, they know the government will give them lots of free money anyway.
ancient rome used to hand out free grain daily to roman citizens, did that for centuries. when rome collapsed and the grain deliveries from egypt ceased and the free grain stopped, citizens would still gather in the forum for years afterwards, waiting for the daily handout.
used to put out bird seed. the birds swarmed, an entire flock of pigeons grew up around it. I stopped and they’d all just huddle in the yard around where the seed used to be, day after day, looking sad. then a pair of hawks moved into the neighborhood and cleaned out all the pigeons.
there are people who no matter how much they have, will never be able to handle it responsibly. for those people having 10 bucks is the same as having ten million, it’s all pissed away by tomorrow morning.
Perspective, it’s what plants crave.
Household income percentiles…
I would say to those “cash rich”diversify”as our cash savings soon be worth not much.
Sure,always have some cash on hand but really,do not have too much.
I am in that boat at moment and diversifying as much as possible(no,do not need help!).
Looking for new homeland but refuse to engage in bidding wars,in less the bids are going down!
if the fed keeps hiking then prices will come down. overall of course, no telling what will happen in any one particular location.
Increasing interest rates did not work last time. Prices kept going up, and people bought them with 12% mortgages. Prices didn’t gradually drop. The bottom fell out when oil crashed. People were upside down in their mortgages. Many just walked away when they saw similar houses sell for 30% less than they still owed on their high interest mortgages.
BTW, at the same time, 12% one year CD’s played hell with the stock market.
1 in 9 can’t afford a $400 emergency? I though it was a lot higher than that?
it is. something like half.
Great point GNL…what’s an emergency costing as little as 400 dollars?
It’s the people watching those commercials for getting out of their credit card debt. Plumbing break, and they have no cash and nothing left on the credit card limit. Some probably have college loan debt too. It’s what can happen when you buy everything you want. You don’t have any money left for what you HAVE to buy.
For a lot of people expensive cars (or in the area where I live, pickup trucks) are their weakness. I drive a 2000 Subaru with 230k miles. I could write a check for pretty much any car I would want, but my Subaru starts every time, and both the radio and A/C work fine. Plus at the supermarket, instead of worrying about who might park next to me and ding my car, I’m the one others worry about parking next to them!
tires. water pump. plumbing event. vet bill. lost glasses.
People tend to spend what they earn regardless of the level of income.
yep. studies of lottery winners show two typical outcomes. one group carefully studies and invests their winnings, and a year later they have more than they won. the second group quits their job, spends all the money, and a year later have nothing left.
And a lot spend somewhat more than they make and then blame the credit card company for their problems. Just like our government.
I made about 8500 dollars in 2021, about the same for the past few years. Recently, I did work for someone in that 250k bracket and I had to wait weeks for them to pay up. It was a pissing contest, they didn’t have it and I didn’t “need” it and they knew it. Get to 0 before they make that decision for you.
As a boomer I never had to buy soap specifically for my scrotum as do millennials, so there is that expense.
They make scrotum soap?
Typical millennial must buy the top shelf everything in that income bracket . The car the house all the gadgets latest iPhone a $5 dollar coffee everyday etc …
Being a boomer we saved bought a modest home used cars a good coffee pot and thermos clipped coupons and were frugal with expenditures . Never paid for cable tv till internet became a necessity for education of our kids .
So now in retirement we get financially fucked by the leftist ideology of the idiot Biden & Company !
Any wonder why these leftist assholes want us disarmed ?
We all know and dead people especially children is not these life long parasitic government wonks !
They don’t give a shit about you your children nothing
Just more for themselves and their wealthy supporters that own everything including government
Millennials don’t own cars because they live in cities. They don’t own houses because they rent. They don’t own guns because they’re scared. Millennials aren’t the problem.
Cars? Maybe not in NYC, but most other places. In fact, where I live there are working Millennials who have “had to” move back in with their parents. One even asked his father to park his modest older car outside, so he could park his BMW in the garage! At least he didn’t ask his mom to park outside. I was frankly surprised that my neighbor admitted that to me.
Millennials may not be THE problem, but some definitely are a problem.
Our story is similar. Only difference is I only buy a new car, maintain it, and drive it a long time. I’m expecting any day now for the Democrat government to declare “means testing” for Social Security and Medicare, and punish those who saved for their retirement.
Wait, a person making $250k a year is being “forced to purchase housing and other big-ticket items at the historically high price levels?” What a load of crap! Stupid people do stupid things. No one has to force them.
Overspending is the reason why. No excuse……
Mgtow and wealth