Released: June 28, 2007

Even high earning families can struggle

Source: Stephanie Armour, USA Today

The car payment was due. Creditors kept calling. Every single credit card was at its maximum.

Steve and Nicole Brown could barely scrape by living paycheck to paycheck, but they never expected to find themselves in such perilous financial shape. As probation officers, the Balch Springs, Texas, couple earn $80,000 a year. Like many, they believed surviving without savings shouldn’t happen to someone in their income bracket.

But it did. Medical costs for their son, Kobe, 4, who has asthma, along with student loans from college, led the Browns into debt. Today, they are on a plan to be debt free by 2008 and are curbing recreational spending, but their story mirrors the predicament facing many Americans who are middle- and high-wage earners but still living paycheck-to-paycheck, stretching to make ends meet despite earning salaries that are near — or above — six figures.

Nearly one in five workers who earn $100,000 or more report they often or always live paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder, an online job site. Although 18% save $1,000 or more per month, 30% save $250 or less. 

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