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Comment by WheelsAtLarge | Hacker News Reader

We hear this a lot so it seems like most people are just at the edge of financial disaster. But what's left out is that most people spend as much as they earn so no matter how much they earn they would still be barely hanging on.

I know there are plenty of people that are barely hanging on because they aren't earning enough money but many just don't know how to handle their finances.

Here's someone complaining $200,000 is not enough.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/im-having-a-hard-time-unde...

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While I get your point, I took the article to be more in the vein of saying that the downturn hit everyone, so your previous year's income was a horrible metric for determining who should get stimulus. There are plenty of industries where there are boom and bust years. Paying for stimulus checks with debt, and then telling people, who may have also fallen on unexpected hard times due to covid, that they made too much (and also contributed more in taxes) the previous year to get help... I mean the author does have a case.

Yes, but these type of articles have been around even before Covid. Here's one from 2013

76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck

https://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index....

And I'm sure you can find more even earlier than than that.

I've found myself at the edge of my finances at some point but can the number be so large all the time in one of the riches country in the world?

These articles get published because they get clicks, not because they're accurate.

The actual survey this article was based on is available here: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-...

Scroll down to the question they asked and the results and you'll see that it's nothing like what this headline suggests. If you answered "put it on a credit card and pay it off" or suggested that you would cut other expenses that month, you were counted as being unable to afford it.

The majority of Americans are not on the brink of financial collapse, but headlines suggesting as much will never fall out of fashion.

When interest rates are below inflation, it may make sense for many people to extend themselves as far as they can to acquire assets, nominally spending more than they earn. The current market makes it very tempting to short the USD via low interest loans to buy speculative holdings.

>Here's someone complaining $200,000 is not enough.

I don't think they're complaining that $200k isn't enough; they're complaining that it's unfair for them not to get a stimulus cheque when they pay a lot of taxes.

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