{"id":507473,"date":"2026-01-11T01:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T01:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:59:16","slug":"americans-using-savings-and-debt-amid-widespread-financial-distress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507473\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Using Savings And Debt Amid \u2018Widespread Financial Distress\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

For millions of Americans, staying financially afloat now means difficult trade-offs. As the price of everyday necessities continues to rise faster than wages, new data shows workers are cutting back wherever they can – often at the expense of savings<\/a>, overall financial security and even essential needs.<\/p>\n

That is the picture emerging from Resume Now\u2019s 2026 Cost-of-Living Crunch Report, a national survey of 1,011 employed Americans, which has found that only 17 percent of Americans feel financially secure enough to cover essentials and save money<\/a>. Nearly two-thirds of respondents cited everyday essentials as their biggest financial burden. What’s more, a remarkable 92 percent said they have cut back on spending<\/a>, including on items many would previously have considered non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

Only a small share of workers say their pay has kept up with rising prices. Just 12 percent reported that their wages have matched inflation. <\/p>\n

The survey also found that 49 percent dipped into savings in 2025, and 24 percent took on debt<\/a>\u2014something the report describes as “clear signs of widespread financial distress.”<\/p>\n

\"\"No Temporary Hangover<\/p>\n

Bobbi Rebell, a certified financial planner and personal finance<\/a> expert at CardRates.com, said the data points to something more serious than a temporary hangover from coronavirus pandemic-era inflation, which reached a high of 9.1 percent in June 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese numbers tell a dramatic story and it is not a good one,\u201d she told Newsweek. \u201cThe vast majority are feeling more than crunched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebell said that while inflation may have cooled\u2014down to 2.7 percent in December 2025\u2014the lived experience for many Americans has still not improved. \u201cEven though on paper inflation has cooled, the real-life reality is that prices aren\u2019t rising as fast as they were, but they remain at unsustainable levels for many Americans,\u201d she said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t psychological. This is systemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

That systemic pressure is showing up in how households are managing shortfalls. Nearly half of those surveyed said they have dipped into savings to stay afloat, while almost a quarter reported taking on new debt. <\/p>\n

Rebell said the breadth of the stress stands out compared with previous downturns and periods where the cost of living has been high. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe extreme findings are sending a clear message that the financial stress is more intense and more widespread than in previous downturns,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that people don\u2019t have jobs. It is that they have jobs that provide incomes that are too low to make their lives economically sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixty percent of respondents said they could only cover three months or less of expenses if they were to lose their job, leaving little room for error in the event of layoffs, illness or other events that could impact their financial standing. For many, even routine expenses are being trimmed. Four in 10 reported cutting grocery spending, while more than one in five said they have delayed healthcare visits or prescriptions because of cost.<\/p>\n

Unaffordable Essentials<\/p>\n

Sixty-five percent of the survey respondents said that affording everyday essentials was a top contributor to their financial strain.<\/p>\n

Jared Kessler, founder of Forex Broker, said the concentration of stress around essentials is a key indicator that the problem runs deeper than any short-term financial shocks. \u201cIt is clear, based on this data, that we are experiencing a real cost-of-living crisis as opposed to an immediate inflationary response to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d he told Newsweek.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Consumer Price Index (CPI) data\u00a0shows that food prices continue to increase year over year. In August 2025, the latest month for which data is available, the CPI for all food was up\u00a03.2 percent compared with the prior year, with groceries up\u00a02.7 percent\u00a0and restaurant food up\u00a03.9 percent. Food prices are expected to increase by 2.7 percent overall<\/a> in 2026, the USDA has said.<\/p>\n

The total cost of food at home has climbed\u00a028.3 percent since January 2020, just before the pandemic hit, according to Pew Research Center analysis, with meat, poultry, fish and eggs rising particularly fast.<\/p>\n

Kessler pointed to the persistent mismatch between wages and prices as a sign of a structural issue. \u201cIf wages do not begin to increase at the same rate as prices over a series of years, then it can be classified as a structural, as opposed to cyclical, issue,\u201d he said. “It does not appear that households are simply readjusting to an initial price shock;\u00a0rather, they are attempting to maintain their standard of living in a world where basic costs continue to rise.”<\/p>\n

And while prices continue to rise at a rate that may be unsustainable for many households, cutting back on essentials carries longer-term risks. “These are expenditures that cannot be eliminated or reduced without causing hardship. As individuals reduce spending on these essential needs and deplete their savings accounts, it will likely indicate that the consumer has reached a point of long-term financial unaffordability.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For millions of Americans, staying financially afloat now means difficult trade-offs. As the price of everyday necessities continues…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":507474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,8162,26448,79,6459,255,6763,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-507473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-savings","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115873996112433863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}