Paycheck to Paycheck

I've made this point many times, that one big divide in this country is between people who mostly live paycheck to paycheck and those who don't. You can be pretty high income and exist in the former category. Obviously for the most part being higher income is better than being lower income, and I extend my greater sympathies to the truly poor. But having high "mandatory" monthly expenses - mortgage, car expenses, student loans, etc. - can give higher income people a pretty high level of economic distress. Maybe some of these people made dumb choices - like us all - and they should've made better ones to live more securely. Still these dumb choices are often hard to undo, and worrying about having enough money to get through the end of the month is high stress no matter where you fall on the income distribution.