It’s no secret that inflation has affected many US households. But what’s surprising is rising costs are hitting those that earn nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year really hard as well.
According to new findings from a survey by Pymnts.com and LendingClub Corp, about 1/3 of those making $250,000 are struggling to keep up with the expenses.
“Some 36 percent of households taking in nearly four times the median US salary devote nearly all of their income to household expenses,” Bloomberg points out. Ten to twelve percent of high earners reported that some of their bills were not getting paid due to not having enough money at the end of the month.
The survey asked 4,000 US consumers questions about their finances and expenses from April 6 through 13.
“Housing expenses, which typically take up large chunks of the budgets of wealthier people, have skyrocketed during the pandemic,” Bloomberg reported.
“Though lower incomes generally correlate with financial distress, 36% of consumers who annually earn $250,000 or more live paycheck to paycheck,” PYMNTS.com reported. “Our data finds that, in April 2022, 36% of consumers earning $100,000 to $150,000, 31% earning $150,000 to $200,000, 26% earning $200,000 to $250,000 and 24% earning more than $250,000 were living paycheck to paycheck without issues paying their bills. Between 10% and 12% of consumers in these higher-income brackets lived paycheck to paycheck with issues paying their bills in April 2022.”
But the report also pointed that those with a higher income are obviously more likely to have a high credit score, and make up the cash flow gaps with other money products.
“Those earning more than $250,000 are 40% more likely to use financial products than consumers in the lowest bracket, and as many as 63% of them have an above-average credit score exceeding 750 points,” PYMNTS.com said.
The full report can be found here.
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