{"id":885028,"date":"2026-10-17T02:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885028\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:28:09","slug":"more-than-a-fourth-of-americans-cant-pay-all-their-monthly-bills-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885028\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a fourth of Americans can\u2019t pay all their monthly bills: study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than one in four Americans cannot pay all of their monthly bills, according to a concerning new survey.<\/p>\n<p>A troubling 27% of adults <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2026\/10\/14\/many-americans-are-struggling-to-afford-basic-necessities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">surveyed by Pew Research Center<\/a> admitted they can only pay some of their monthly dues or make partial payments \u2014 a slight uptick from the share who said the same during COVID in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-four percent of Americans surveyed in April 2020 said they couldn\u2019t make all their monthly bills, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/10\/SR_26.10.14_Personal-Finance_topline.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the pollsters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the majority of Americans (60%) said they don\u2019t currently have enough income to lead the kind of life they want\u00a0\u2014 while 53% said\u00a0they don\u2019t have\u00a0emergency funds to cover expenses for three months.<\/p>\n<p>The survey was conducted on more than 5,000 adults on Aug. 24-30, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41372158\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/stressed-woman-reviewing-bills-home-145325058.jpg\" alt=\"A stressed woman looks at household bills.\" class=\"wp-image-41372158\"\/>A woman looks at household bills. fizkes \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Around a third (32%) said they worry nearly every day about the cost of healthcare and the amount of debt they have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe asked Americans a series of questions about their financial stability and security, their ability to afford basic necessities, and their general outlook on their personal financial situation,\u201d Pew said in the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe survey, conducted in August, finds that many Americans are not on solid financial footing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Overall, roughly 44% said they have had trouble paying for at least one basic necessity, including rent, mortgage and transportation, in\u00a0the past year.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.00954654;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41372160\" width=\"596\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2026-10-14-many-americans-145324548.jpg\" alt=\"graph\" class=\"wp-image-41372160\"\/>More than a fourth of Americans can\u2019t pay all their monthly bills, according to a study. PEW RESEARCH CENTER<\/p>\n<p>And forget <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/28\/us-news\/nearly-60-americans-say-theyre-too-broke-to-have-fun-survey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fun expenses.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A total of 70% of US adults said they had to\u00a0cut back on spending money on extras \u2014 including eating out, streaming services and other entertainment \u2014 in the past year, according to the survey.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 54% also said\u00a0they have not been able to save money for the future.<\/p>\n<p>For the study, researchers asked Americans questions about rent and mortgages, whether they\u2019ve been laid off recently, and if they\u2019ve needed to take out a loan, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than one in four Americans cannot pay all of their monthly bills, according to a concerning new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101,2066,3284,194],"class_list":["post-885028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-money","tag-study-says","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885028","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=885028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}