More than half of Americans earning more than $100,000 a year say they're living paycheck to paycheck, according to a report from PYMNTS and LendingClub. This may be a result of a sneaky behavioral phenomenon called lifestyle creep, which is when a person's spending habits expand as their income rises. The rise in the cost of living complicates matters, as incomes have not kept up with inflation. Watch the video above to learn more about why Americans struggle to keep money in their pockets.
This reminds me of my ex. Her family was wealthy, my family was not. I got through college by working and taking student loans, as did she, but she was reimbursed by her parents for all of her expenses at the end of each semester. I got nothing.
So she’d start each semester with loans in excess of what she needed for tuition by thousands of dollars and a huge payment from her parents for the previous semester, all of which she kept instead of paying off her loans. Without fail, she’d need to start borrowing money from me by the end of each semester because she’d spent it all going out drinking with friends nearly every night.
It used to piss me off so much. I was budgeting hard because I had no other income while she was out partying all the time. She eventually left me because I wasn’t going out with her as much because I couldn’t afford to, especially because she kept using my money to support her lifestyle. In retrospect, I dodged a bullet.
This reminds me of my ex. Her family was wealthy, my family was not. I got through college by working and taking student loans, as did she, but she was reimbursed by her parents for all of her expenses at the end of each semester. I got nothing.
So she’d start each semester with loans in excess of what she needed for tuition by thousands of dollars and a huge payment from her parents for the previous semester, all of which she kept instead of paying off her loans. Without fail, she’d need to start borrowing money from me by the end of each semester because she’d spent it all going out drinking with friends nearly every night.
It used to piss me off so much. I was budgeting hard because I had no other income while she was out partying all the time. She eventually left me because I wasn’t going out with her as much because I couldn’t afford to, especially because she kept using my money to support her lifestyle. In retrospect, I dodged a bullet.