{"id":298077,"date":"2025-11-18T00:48:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298077\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T00:48:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:48:05","slug":"a-growing-number-of-six-figure-earners-say-the-american-dream-feels-out-of-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298077\/","title":{"rendered":"A growing number of six-figure earners say the American Dream feels out of reach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It appears even some of America\u2019s higher earners are feeling the economic squeeze.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/theharrispoll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Income-Paradox-Survey-November-2025.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Income Paradox Survey conducted by The Harris Poll<\/a>, nearly 1 in 3 people earning at least $100,000 a year say they are financially \u201cstretched,\u201d \u201cstruggling,\u201d or \u201cdrowning.\u201d Among those earning $200,000 or more \u2014 roughly the top 10% of U.S. earners \u2014 nearly the same share reported financial distress.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED STORY | <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/life\/money\/americans-spend-over-a-third-of-their-paycheck-within-12-hours-study-shows\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Americans spend over a third of their paycheck within 12 hours, study shows<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The poll found that 64% of six-figure earners say that level of income now amounts to \u201csurvival mode,\u201d not wealth. More than half say the American Dream no longer feels attainable, and many report persistent financial anxiety. High earners cited groceries, housing costs and medical bills as the top expenses draining their incomes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite salaries once viewed as comfortable, most respondents said they would need double their current income to finally feel financially secure.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED STORY | <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/politics\/economy\/paycheck-to-paycheck-a-quarter-of-us-households-struggling-to-cover-essentials\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paycheck to paycheck: A quarter of US households struggling to cover essentials<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The findings mirror broader trends economists have been tracking. A recent analysis by the Bank of America Institute found that 1 in 4 U.S. households is living paycheck to paycheck.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the study noted that paycheck-to-paycheck living remains more common among lower-income households.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears even some of America\u2019s higher earners are feeling the economic squeeze. According to the Income Paradox&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-298077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}