The affordability crisis puts a huge strain on Americans making the least, but apparently everyone is feeling it.
More than a third of people earning under $100,000 or over $300,000 say they live paycheck to paycheck, according to a new report on retirement trends from Goldman Sachs. For people making less than $100,000, the share of people struggling to save is 42%, while 36% of their well-compensated counterparts above the $300,000 threshold reported a similar lack of financial wiggle room. Over two-thirds of Americans earning under $100,000 or over $300,000 also said they had been forced to delay their financial goals.
Meanwhile, 23% of Americans with incomes from $100,000 to $300,000 said they were living paycheck to paycheck, and 54% of earners in that middle swath said they had delayed their own personal finance milestones. Across income levels, almost 70% of people in the U.S. say they have put off a major financial goal, the new report reveals. The findings were drawn from surveys of 5,106 people conducted in July 2026, a data set that included a mix of retired people and Americans still in the workforce.
“For generations, the retirement security formula was straightforward: work consistently, save diligently, and security would follow,” Goldman Sachs Asset Management Head of Retirement Greg Wilson said in the report. “While workers may look financially stable externally, underneath, they’re working more, delaying major goals, and supplementing their income,” Wilson said.
The report’s findings are likely to be surprising – particularly to anyone making far less than $300,000 – but it’s not the first time we’ve heard of high earners spending more and saving less. It’s possible that more of the financial activity from workers in the upper income tiers happens beyond the kind of bank accounts that used to pay monthly expenses. Large salaries are also associated with high cost of living cities, where local rent can cost thousands more than it might in more affordable markets. The simplest explanation? High earners are suffering from self-inflicted lifestyle creep, with spending habits that scale up as they make more.
Almost everybody is stressed about money
For many people, worries about their financial well being are getting in the way. In the new report, more than half of those surveyed (54%) said that concerns about money make it hard to focus on work and 32% say they missed work in the last year due to a financial challenge. That number is especially high among Gen Z and millennial workers, with 53% and 47% saying they missed work in the last year due to money troubles.
There’s plenty to worry about and workers share many of the same concerns. Worrying about paying bills topped the list as the most common source of financial stress, with concerns about retirement and stress over financially supporting family members coming in second and third. Even with almost two-thirds of respondents saying that they have a retirement plan in motion, stress over affordability abounds right now.
A whopping 66% of respondents from Gen Z to Gen X said that they expect to retire later than planned, with only 58% of people currently saving for retirement describing their situation as on track or ahead of schedule. That’s a 10% drop from 2025, when 68% felt that their retirement goals were in reach.
“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,” Jonathan A. Barber, Goldman Sachs Head of Compensation & Benefits, observed in the report.
Barber notes that savvy employers are exploring financial wellness and education programs, student loan and debt assistance, and lifestyle spending accounts to give stressed employees a hand. “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.”
