Got a source?
This article says 58% of Americans say they live paycheck-to-paycheck: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/09/most-of-americans-are-living...
This article mentions 78%: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-pa...
This article says 58% of Americans say they live paycheck-to-paycheck: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/09/most-of-americans-are-living...
This article mentions 78%: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-pa...
Some stats:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-we...
> Eighty-two percent of adults had a credit card in 2023. They were nearly evenly split between the people who paid off their balances in each of the previous 12 months and people who carried balances from month to month at least once in the prior year. Just about one-quarter said they carried a balance most of the time during the prior 12 months.
> Fourteen percent of people used BNPL ["buy now, pay later", an alternative to credit cards] in the prior 12 months, up 2 percentage points from 2022.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-we...
> Near the end of 2023, 72 percent of adults were at least doing okay financially, meaning they reported either "doing okay" financially (39 percent) or "living comfortably" (33 percent). The rest reported either "just getting by" (19 percent) or "finding it difficult to get by" (9 percent)... The 72 percent of adults doing at least okay financially was essentially unchanged from 2022 yet was down 6 percentage points from the recent high of 78 percent in 2021 (figure 1).
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-we...
> Table 17. Largest emergency expense individuals could handle right now using only savings
> under $100 (18%)
> $100–$499 (14%)
> $500–$999 (10%)
> $1,000–$1,999 (10%)
> over $2,000 (48%)
(Which I find this hard to reconcile with the following from the same page:)
> In 2023, 54 percent of adults said they had set aside money for three months of expenses in an emergency savings or "rainy day" fund—unchanged from 2022 but down from a high of 59 percent of adults in 2021.
For example, in the second one you linked the question asked was something like "How difficult would it be for you if your paycheck was delayed by one week?" and they took anybody who said more than "not difficult" as "living paycheck to paycheck". My definition is more strict.
Here's another one showing more than 50%: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/69-of-americans-in-...
That directly contradicts your claim that the majority has 3 months of emergency savings unless you're so out of touch to think that $2,000 is enough to last people 3 months.