Report: 58% Of Americans Living Paycheck To Paycheck

Open in Our App

Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More

Open in Spectrum News App

Continue in Browser

WATCH LIVEClick here to watch our live stream WEATHER ALERTView full list of active weather alerts CLOSINGS ALERTView full list of closings Holy Cross professor Victor Matheson said average monthly expenses for a household are about $5,000, but a typical family has less than that in their emergency savings. Report: 58% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck BY Meghan Parsons Worcester PUBLISHED 4:15 PM ET Jun. 28, 2022 PUBLISHED 4:15 PM EDT Jun. 28, 2022 SHARE

WORCESTER, Mass. - A new report is highlighting how inflation is affecting people’s wallets. It shows more than half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

College of the Holy Cross professor Victor Matheson said average monthly expenses for a household are about $5,000, but a typical family has less than that in their emergency savings.

According to a recent Lending Club report, 58% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Inflation is at a 40-year high, making common items like groceries and gas more of a burden to afford.

Now, workers across all income levels are having a harder time saving money. Matheson said it’s hard, but one way to help your future finances is to set up automatic payments to a savings account.

“Organized, regular, automatic plan to put savings away is really the way to do it,” Matheson said. “It’s just too hard to even do that on our own when we are trying to decide between a Dunkin’ iced coffee and putting it away for savings, but if we do it automatically, you don’t even notice.”

A similar report from a year ago, showed 54% of people lived month to month. That’s now up another 4% this year and, unfortunately, Matheson said there isn’t much that can be done to fix inflation soon. ​

LATEST NEWS