Even Americans Making Over $300,000 Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck

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More than one-third of Americans earning over $300,000 said they were living paycheck to paycheck as persistent inflation continued to squeeze household budgets across the income spectrum, according to a Goldman Sachs survey released Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management found 36% of workers earning over $300,000 reported living paycheck to paycheck, compared with 42% of workers earning less than $100,000 and just 23% of those making between $100,000 and $300,000. Higher earners can face substantially larger fixed expenses and lifestyle costs, while elevated prices have further increased the amount households must spend to maintain their standard of living.

The findings produced what Goldman Sachs described as a U-shaped relationship between income and financial strain: paycheck-to-paycheck living declined sharply as income rose above $100,000, but then increased again among workers earning more than $300,000. 

Goldman’s findings do not necessarily mean a worker making $300,000 faces the same financial circumstances as someone earning a fraction of that amount. Rather, the survey measured whether workers themselves reported living paycheck to paycheck and experiencing other forms of financial strain.

High salaries do not necessarily translate into large amounts of disposable income, particularly when higher earnings are accompanied by larger fixed expenses or so-called lifestyle creep. Financial planners have warned that housing, debt, tuition and other recurring expenses can leave even affluent households with little financial flexibility, Investopedia reported.

“One of the more remarkable findings is whether or not financial security improves linearly with income,” Chris Ceder, a senior retirement strategist at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance.

“It does for a while, but it’s a U-shape pattern,” Ceder said.

The same pattern appeared in workers delaying major financial goals. Goldman found 69% of workers earning less than $100,000 had delayed a major financial goal. That figure dropped to 54% among workers earning between $100,000 and $300,000 before jumping to 76% among those earning more than $300,000.

Those postponed goals included building emergency savings, saving for retirement, paying down debt and buying a home, according to Goldman Sachs.

The bank’s survey also found financial pressure was weighing on Americans across income levels. Nearly 70% of workers overall said they had postponed a major financial goal.

A similar pattern appeared in credit card payments. Goldman found 35% of workers earning between $100,000 and $300,000 were making only the minimum payment or less on their credit cards, compared with 42% of workers earning above $300,000, Yahoo Finance reported.

“We can see a similar pattern as it relates to delaying financial goals, delaying retirement savings, and also paying the minimum of their credit card balances,” Ceder told Yahoo Finance.

Inflation remained well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target in August, with the personal consumption expenditures price index rising 3.4% from a year earlier and core PCE increasing 3%. The Fed attributed part of the year’s inflation increase to surging energy prices following the beginning of the Middle East conflict, saying in its July monetary policy report that constraints on oil supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz helped drive a sharp rise in energy costs.

The 2026 Goldman Sachs Asset Management Retirement Survey surveyed 5,106 Americans in July, including 3,612 working individuals and 1,494 retirees between the ages of 45 and 75.