Posted on 04/28/2014 8:59:49 AM PDT by george76
About one-third of American households live "hand-to-mouth," meaning that they spend all their paychecks. But what surprised the study authors is that 66% of these families are middle class, with a median income of $41,000. While they don't have liquid assets, such as savings accounts or mutual fund holdings, they do have homes and retirement accounts, with a median net worth of $41,000.
...
Poor hand-to-mouth households, by contrast, typically have incomes of $21,000 and no assets. Families that don't live paycheck to paycheck have incomes of $51,000 and assets of $116,000.
Those living paycheck to paycheck have a tougher time weathering income shocks, such as illnesses or bouts of unemployment. The study found that they have to cut back their spending far more than those with a reserve they can tap more readily.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Living paycheck to paycheck, unless you are living on beans and rice, Is seriously irresponsible.
If you're not living on the edge . . you're taking up too much room.
also the media hides that the gov banned lightbulbs
The media hides that the government owns 30% of land in the USA:
Yea!and these Government parasites continue to steal more of our already cratered incomes by allowing unauthorized entry of illegal aliens into the United States.
Living paycheck to paycheck, unless you are living on beans and rice, Is seriously irresponsible.
If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you *should* be living on beans and rice for a while.
Families that don’t live paycheck to paycheck have incomes of $51,000 and assets of $116,000.
Just found out we are seriously rich. Must be from all those years of saving and paying off our houses and paying cash for cars.
Another Pulitzer prize winning CNN piece. When you really have nothing to contribute, reciting the obvious is all you have....unless you just make something up.
Status quo.
If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you *should* be living on beans and rice for a while.
I know people who make six figures and still live paycheck to paycheck.
I think it may be worse than this if I understand the accounting behind the story correctly. Most of those homes are mortgaged. If you have $41,000 in equity in a home, you don't have $41,000, and nobody is going to write you a check for $41,000 when the bank forecloses.
What would be more responsible, living paycheck to paycheck and paying my mortgage or walking away from my mortgage with the ability to rent a better house in the same neighborhood and pocket $1,000 each month? Serious question. I realize I overpaid for this in the housing bubble when I was 25, but I think it is more responsible to pay the mortgage.
Walk away. That is the plan b you signed on to when you signed the mortgage. You said that if you could not make the payments that you would give them the house back.
This is why mortgages used to require 20% down (and what we did when we purchased our farm). It was irresponsible for lenders to give 100% or even 125% loans because when someone owes less than the property is worth, they are not incentivized to walk away. And if they do, the bank does fine when they sell the place.
They were asking the borrowers to just give back the homes with these ridiculous LTV loans. They signed the same papers you did. Give the house back and let them deal with their irresponsible loan practice. They bought themself a house.
Note, this is not possible in all states.
SOMEONE pays the debt.
I have always felt that I should pay it if I incurred it.
In other words, if the house doubled in value I wouldn’t give half back?
Depends on how you look at iniquity on the part of banks and appraisers.
I was one of the people warning folks with deaf ears about why there was going to be real estate crash, and the long term nature of it.
Your financiers knew what I knew when you bought the house.
They absolutely knew that the market was going to correct itself eventually.
Somebody at CNN apparently thinks this is news.
Note, too, that when you do this, your credit rating takes a tremendous hit.
You have to debate with yourself and your family the pros and cons of this approach.
Just be careful out there.
CA....
We were childless when we bought the house and could afford it while cutting back on other things. Then I got a raise and it was comfortable. Then we had a child and started sinking $1,000 per month into childcare/preschool and each subsequent raise has been cancelled out by increasing payroll deductions (first the payroll tax hike and then Obamacare inflating our medical insurance). In August we will be getting most of that $1,000 back as our child enters Kindergarten. It is kind of a moot point now as long as we both keep our jobs between now and August then we can finally start saving some money.
CNN Newsflash-Those with no money are broke!
I went nearly two years on oatmeal, beans, rice, and one egg a day. That’s what responsible people do if they can’t keep expenses below income otherwise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.