Nearly Half of America Lives Paycheck-to-Paycheck

[Purveyor]

The economic picture is looking brighter these days. The federal government announced Thursday that economic growth had picked up to its fastest pace in two years, while employment growth over the past five months has averaged a healthy 185,000 new jobs.

But as evidenced by a report out Thursday from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, nearly half of Americans are living in a state of “persistent economic insecurity,” that makes it “difficult to look beyond immediate needs and plan for a more secure future.”

In other words, too many of us are living paycheck to paycheck. The CFED calls these folks “liquid asset poor,” and its report finds that 44% of Americans are living with less than $5,887 in savings for a family of four. The plight of these folks is compounded by the fact that the recession ravaged many Americans’ credit scores to the point that now 56% percent of us have subprime credit. That means that if emergencies arise, many Americans are forced to resort to high-interest debt from credit cards or payday loans.



Read more: http://business.time.com/2014/01/30/nearly-half-of-america-lives-paycheck-to-paycheck/#ixzz2s1eqemuW

[Skittles]

1. gawd, the ignorance displayed via the comments

one of them claims healthcare costs started escalating only when Obama became president

[Fumesucker]

2. No no no no I don't read them no more

I'm tired of waking up on the floor

[Skittles]

5. OMG this is so spooky

I'm listening to a CD "Ring Starr and his All-Starr Band" and - he sang that line when I was reading your post

[Fumesucker]

6. Submitted for your approval

[Skittles]

7. I'm hearing the theme

[justiceischeap]

3. I have what many (myself included) would consider a very well paying job

I was overdrawn this week because my rent and car payment hit roughly at the same time. I'm 43 and in order to live in the area I live (DC Metro area), I need two roommates (one of which we're losing at the end of February). I don't know how people are expected to have savings for retirement when you can barely make it from week to week in a "well-paying" job. I can't participate in 401k's because I'm a contractor and more and more businesses are hiring contractors. Then you have the government wanting to gut social security and SNAP and other programs to help people who don't have well paying jobs.

They need to let the people out of jail that are there for drugs so they can start jailing debtors again.

[LiberalEsto]

4. And now they expect you to pay huge deductibles for health care

We just got socked with a $4000 deductible through my husband's employer. Where on earth are people supposed to come up with money to pay for all their doctor and prescription costs until they hit the deductible?

Oh, yeah, with a Health Savings Account. And how on earth are people going to spare extra money to PUT in their HSA when they are struggling to pay their doctor and prescription bills until the deductible is met?

We live in the DC area too.

[woo me with science]

8. kick