Many High-Earning Americans Live Paycheck to Paycheck, Goldman Sachs Finds

Key Points

• More than one-third of respondents in a Goldman Sachs survey who earn over $300,000 a year said they live paycheck to paycheck.
• The share of participants who feel their retirement savings are on track fell to 58% in this year’s survey, down from 68% last year.
• Respondents cited housing costs, day-to-day expenses, and debt payments as significant obstacles to saving.

A big salary doesn’t mean you’re living comfortably. More than one-third of respondents in a recent Goldman Sachs retirement survey who earn more than $300,000 a year said they live paycheck to paycheck and “struggle to save and find it difficult to make any progress on [their] long-term financial goals.”

The obstacles to saving vary somewhat by generation, but respondents cited housing costs, day-to-day expenses, and debt payments as significant factors. Photo: Dreamstime

The report offers an array of dispiriting findings about Americans’ retirement readiness, including a sharp drop in the percentage of respondents who say they are on track for retirement. In this year’s survey, 58% of the participants said they feel their retirement savings are on target to meet or exceed their goals, down from 68% last year.

Goldman found that 39% of respondents said they have increased their rate of retirement savings, down 16% from a year ago, while the number of people who said they are reducing their savings rates increased from 8% last year to 14% in this year’s survey. The survey, conducted in July, polled more than 5,100 people.

The decline in the share of respondents who said they are increasing their savings was the largest drop in six years, potentially heralding a “momentum shift,” according to Chris Ceder, senior retirement strategist at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “Savers are taking less action, and the actions they are taking are more defensive in nature, suggesting that they may have concerns over persistent inflation and market volatility.”

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Rising costs could certainly factor in the share of respondents who said they are just getting by and generally unable to save for long-term goals. By income band, the largest share of respondents who described themselves as living paycheck to paycheck was those earning less than $50,000 a year, at 61%. Among respondents earning between $50,000 and $100,000 and those earning between $300,000 and $500,000, 34% said they live paycheck to paycheck. And of workers making more than $500,000 a year, 37% said they are living paycheck to paycheck, the highest of any segment except the very lowest earners. According to the survey, 36% of respondents who earn $300,000 or more aren’t meaningfully saving.

Those rates were lower in the middle bands of the income spectrum: Twenty-two percent of respondents earning between $100,000 and $200,000 said they live paycheck to paycheck, and 25% of respondents earning between $200,000 and $300,000 said the same.

It follows that when asked about financial stress, a greater share (24%) of the highest earners than any other segment said that financial concerns “very often” make it difficult for them to focus on work.

“While workers may look financially stable externally, underneath, they’re working more, delaying major goals, and supplementing their income,” says Greg Wilson, head of retirement and co-head of the Americas Third-Party Wealth unit at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The obstacles to saving vary somewhat by generation, but respondents cited housing costs, day-to-day expenses, and debt payments as significant factors.

Goldman sees an opportunity for employers in the rising financial anxiety. Jonathan Barber, a managing director and head of compensation and benefits solutions at Goldman Sachs Ayco, says the firm’s corporate customers increasingly are rolling out programs to address financial wellness and offering benefits such as student-loan and homebuying assistance.

“Given the impact financial stress can have on work quality and productivity, employers have a unique opportunity and clear incentive to provide innovative support tools beyond traditional retirement plans,” Barber says. “The idea is to provide a more stable foundation where employees feel more financially secure, which ultimately leads to better job performance and more comfort in their ability to fund retirement savings.”

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