SAN FRANCISCO–A new survey of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck has found a “darker picture than previously reported.”
Conducted by Varo Bank, which said it conducted the “in-depth study” to draw some insights on the 19-million Americans living paycheck to paycheck, including:
The Stress from Americans’ Daily Cost of Living
- 35% of people living paycheck-to-paycheck report that financial stress has had a negative impact on their physical health in the past six months.
- 40% of respondents reported that financial stress has negatively impacted their mental health.
- 15.6% have considered self-harm due to financial stress.
- 15% have sacrificed mental health care due to the cost.
- 21.5% reported self-medicating due to financial stress. Men were significantly more likely than women to report self-medicating and considering self-harm.
Sacrificing Basic Needs
- 48.2% have sacrificed at least one basic need (doctor’s visits, necessary medications, mental health care, healthy food, or safe housing) in the past six months due to the cost.
- 28% have sacrificed at least two of these basic needs.
Divided in Politics, United by Cost-of-Living Woes
- There was no meaningful difference in financial fragility between political parties. People in all parties were inclined to cite the daily cost of living as their greatest financial concern, according to Varo Bank.
No Trust in Banks
- A solid majority (74%) agreed with the statement, “The U.S. financial system is rigged against the poor.”
- More than two-thirds (68%) believe that “You can’t be too careful,’ when dealing with financial institution.
- Women are more likely to be financially fragile than men
- Women were significantly more likely to be financially fragile than men, with 67% of the financially fragile respondents being women.
Gen Z: Too Embarrassed to ask for Financial Help
- 38% of Gen Z respondents have avoided asking for help with their finances because they feel embarrassed or ashamed
The full survey can be found here.
Your Best Holiday Shopping Offer is Here!
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more. So stop paying those bank-fee-like subscription prices from other so-called “news” publications!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?