Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

**Ima saver** · 10-16-2006, 02:10 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I always thought it meant you had no savings, no other way to pay for anything other than your paycheck.

**JanH** · 10-16-2006, 02:17 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I always thought the phrase meant that you used up every paycheck on living and had nothing to fall back on. That you ran out of money from the last pay when you got the next pay. Sounds real scary....

**boefixepa** · 10-16-2006, 02:27 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I've always looked at it as all of the things you mentioned combined. You were 'floating' checks, or charging, to make it next pay day. You had no savings to help or fall back on. Bills would NOT get paid if for some reason the 'paycheck' was short or didn't come and bills were paid by when you had the money not always by when they were due. You never had money for repairs, birthdays, vactions, illnesses etc. A job lost was an instant devistation and you always knew how to 'get help' because you were always just a few days away from needing it. This is how I grew up...this was 'normal' to me. Boy have I learned alot!

**tinapbeana** · 10-16-2006, 02:30 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by vsjhoc

1. By the time you get a paycheck, you have spent all of the last one.
2. If you didn't get the next paycheck, you would have nothing left in the world -- no money in savings -- and would have to incur (more) debt.
3. You don't budget anything for savings because all your money goes to expenses. (Which of course means you haven't been hanging out on this site!

)
4. The mortgage is due today, but by bad calendar karma but you don't get paid until tomorrow.
5. Other?

yeah, paycheck to paycheck is all of the above and then some. it's floating checks, maybe hitting a cash advance place or two, taking out a title loan on your car, even changing the number of dependents you claim on your W4 a few months before the holidays so you'll have extra money in your check for Christmas.

paycheck to paycheck is scary, i've worked with folks who were doing all of the above and then some. then they announced our call center was closing, and several of these folks had to find another job and quit (therefore giving up their severance check aka free money), because they wouldn't be able to make it the 3 weeks between their last pay check and their first severance check.

very scary place to be...

**pearlieq** · 10-16-2006, 02:47 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I always a person was living paycheck to paycheck if they'd be in serious trouble if their next paycheck was delayed or didn't come.

Basically that they had nothing to live on except current income.

**Broken Arrow** · 10-16-2006, 04:48 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by pearlieq

I always a person was living paycheck to paycheck if they'd be in serious trouble if their next paycheck was delayed or didn't come.

Basically that they had nothing to live on except current income.

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

I am trying very hard not to end up like that though.

**greedy4chips** · 10-16-2006, 06:37 PM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I compare living paycheck to paycheck like a person putting just enough gas in their car to get from point A to point B and that is it. If any unforeseen circumstances arise like a traffic jam, detour, etc you won't make it to point B.

I also don't believe living paycheck to paycheck means having everything you own financed, since this means you have mortgaged all future paychecks for a period of time. To me that is even scarier than spending this check just in time to get the next check.

**tinapbeana** · 10-17-2006, 03:45 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by greedy4chips

I also don't believe living paycheck to paycheck means having everything you own financed, since this means you have mortgaged all future paychecks for a period of time. To me that is even scarier than spending this check just in time to get the next check.

G4C, you're right, paycheck to paycheck doesn't always mean having everything financed. but it is actually quite common. think about it: if you're money is spent every paycheck, where does the money come to buy furniture or a car to get to work? are most 'normal' americans going to wait to save for those purchases?

a lot of folks go the rent-to-own route for furniture, especially now since Rooms To Go makes the concept look very mainstream. when i bought my car last month i heard a woman on the phone talking to her mother that they'd managed to get the monthly payments on a used 2003 tahoe down to about 600 per month. $600 A MONTH FOR A USED CAR?!?!?? DH even supervises someone whose tires and rims were repo'd...

while i think the concept of "paycheck to paycheck" is still the same, i think the reality is a lot different than it was in the past. you can finance just about everything now, and so many folks get caught up in the newest, latest, greatest mantra that they'll do anything to get it.

**Ima saver** · 10-17-2006, 06:54 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Thank goodness I have never lived paycheck to paycheck. I always saved something first and had a savings account of my own, when I was 12. I walked everywhere I went (stores, movies, school), so it was easy to walk to the bank every week and deposit some money.

**disneysteve** · 10-17-2006, 08:23 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I agree with everyone. Here's another example.

My mother-in-law works at a small business where they get paid every week. The owner keeps wanting to change to paying every other week, but many of the employees (not my MIL) complain that they would be unable to survive for the one week without a check during the transition period. That's scary, even more so because it isn't just one employee but many of them. These people have absolutely zero savings.

**vsjhoc** · 10-17-2006, 08:32 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by disneysteve

I agree with everyone. Here's another example.

My mother-in-law works at a small business where they get paid every week. The owner keeps wanting to change to paying every other week, but many of the employees (not my MIL) complain that they would be unable to survive for the one week without a check during the transition period. That's scary, even more so because it isn't just one employee but many of them. These people have absolutely zero savings.

Very scary. Do they understand they would get twice as much when they get the bi-weekly check? I guess that's the problem -- they would spend it all during the first week and not set aside any for the bills and food, etc. in the second week.

**Ima saver** · 10-17-2006, 08:44 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

I read somewhere that the average family is only 3 paychecks away from being homeless. that is an awful thought!

**disneysteve** · 10-17-2006, 08:53 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by vsjhoc

Very scary. Do they understand they would get twice as much when they get the bi-weekly check? I guess that's the problem -- they would spend it all during the first week and not set aside any for the bills and food, etc. in the second week.

They understand it. The problem is that now they get a check each week. If the company changed, the last weekly check would have to last them 2 weeks until the first biweekly check arrived and they have no way to pay their living expenses during that time.

**disneysteve** · 10-17-2006, 08:54 AM

Re: Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

Originally posted by Ima saver

I read somewhere that the average family is only 3 paychecks away from being homeless. that is an awful thought!

I believe the other stat is that 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

Living Paycheck to Paycheck?