• @[email protected]
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    3721 days ago

    73% of households report they are personally doing “Okay or better” financially.

    58% of registered voters say they are living paycheck to paycheck.

    Literally every self-reported metric about the economy contradicts the next one.

    • @[email protected]
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      1721 days ago

      It’s all down to who you ask, and how you word it. Some polls have some really convoluted wording to try to get the number they want.

    • @[email protected]
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      1121 days ago

      I asked my buddy at work how he was doing and he said “I need to get this money, ya know? It’s tight.” Meanwhile, he’s paying weekly for what I pay monthly for a car. My phones are always bought secondhand and for the most part I only blow money on videogames.

      You can be “doing good” financially because you make enough money to afford the lifestyle you want while “living paycheck to paycheck” because you spend 100% on your lifestyle.

    • @Jimbo
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      321 days ago

      73% of households report they are personally doing “Okay or better” financially.

      I call absolute bullshit. There is no way that could possibly be representative.

      • XIIIesq
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        421 days ago

        Well it depends on your definition of “OK” and it’s a matter of perspective.

        If someone views themselves as financially “OK” because they can make it in to the next month with at least as much money as they started, even if that amount is £0, then they’re OK.

        Whatever you read in to the statistic, the implication is that 27% aren’t OK and that is absolutely terrible.

        • GladiusB
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          221 days ago

          Being “ok” is a subjective take for many reasons.

          Being “paycheck to paycheck” is objective and easy to formulate an observation.

          The two only have to interconnect through subject matter, not in measure.

  • @[email protected]
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    1521 days ago

    That number seems really low…and also not news. I’m 40 years old, and never met anyone who WASN’T living paycheck to paycheck.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 days ago

      I don’t get out much, so I have no clue how others are doing. I’ll admit that shit sucks right now, but I haven’t been living paycheck to paycheck since working part time in my early 20s over a decade ago. I live in a low COL area and make about $35-$40,000 a year. I only spend maybe $15,000 a year. I may never be able to buy a house, but I’m far off from paycheck to paycheck. It makes me wonder if people who are living that way are maybe just living outside of their means?

      • @[email protected]
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        1621 days ago

        It makes me wonder if people who are living that way are maybe just living outside of their means?

        Could also be a large percentage of people have significant student loans and/or medical debt.

      • @Jimbo
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        221 days ago

        In New Zealand there is no such thing as a low COL area, and where there is, it is a small village in the middle of nowhere that has literally no job openings available.

    • @[email protected]
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      721 days ago

      Dual income, no kids. Not living paycheck to paycheck.

      But yeah, all of our friends are single and living paycheck to paycheck.

      • @[email protected]
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        221 days ago

        Single (but pretty good) income, and also not paycheck to paycheck. I’ve got an extra couple of paychecks in the bank and could draw off my retirement for quite a while because I put everything except a couple of paychecks ahead into either retirement or into paying off my house. Pretty much all my friends are living paycheck to paycheck though.

        I grew up poor as hell so I’m doing my damnedest to actually have some time to relax.

  • @[email protected]
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    121 days ago

    I don’t have a lot of money, that’s for sure, but I’m not living paycheck to paycheck either.