Living paycheck to paycheck is the way of life: New Harris poll finds that 78 percent of US workers live paycheck to paycheck.

Jon Economy

For most Americans, living for payday is the way of life. And many use debt to bridge the gap between money hitting their bank account and the bills that need to be paid. We know since many banks make billions of dollars on people over drafting accounts. A new Harris Poll found that 78 percent of US workers live paycheck to paycheck. Now this news may be shocking to some but in reality, it is no surprise at all. How can this be if the stock market is near a record high, real estate is at record levels, and the headline unemployment rate is near record lows? Well first, most Americans don’t own stocks. Second, the homeownership rate has dropped to near generational lows. You also have nearly 95 million adults that are not part of the labor force so don’t count for employment figures. So this is why the survey results may not be all that surprising. But let us dig into the numbers a bit more.
Living paycheck to paycheck
Beyond the reality that most Americans are just getting by there are many other data points in the survey that are somewhat startling.

This post was published at MyBudget360 on August 30, 2017.