The percentage of Americans just scraping by financially is rising as wage growth slows and inflation flares, Bank of America finds.

A growing share of lower-income Americans are struggling to get by financially as their wages fail to keep up with inflation, according to a recent analysis.

Roughly 29% of lower-income households are living paycheck to paycheck, up slightly from 2024 and from 27.1% in 2023, data from the Bank of America Institute shows. The financial firm defines that as spending more than 95% of household income on necessities such as housing, gasoline, groceries, utility bills and internet service.

In 2025, nearly a quarter of all U.S. households lived paycheck to paycheck, Bank of America estimates.

  • defunct_punk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    I agree. Even “lazy” home cooking (frozen meals, Ramen, frozen pizza) is always cheaper than restaraunts.

    One of the best things I ever did for myself, IMO, was making a budgeting spreadsheet. Except for a basic =SUM() tile showing how much I’ve earned minus what I’ve spent, it’s all manual, nothing is automatically filled in and I have to really reflec and be honest to myself about every purchase I make. Everything gets logged. I don’t know how much I was spending/earning before the spreadsheet (obviously) but I just know that I’m budgeting smarter with one.