63% of Americans Have Under $500 Left Each Month After Paying Their Bills

This very disturbing report is from the International Business Times. 

Nearly two-thirds of Americans are now living paycheque to paycheque, according to the latest SurveyMonkey Quarterly Money Survey, underscoring the financial strain many households continue to face despite a resilient labour market and slowing inflation.

The survey found that 63% of US adults rely on each paycheque to cover monthly expenses, while most have little or no financial cushion after paying for essentials such as housing, food, utilities and transportation.

The findings suggest that millions of Americans remain financially vulnerable, with many saying they would struggle to absorb even a modest unexpected expense or a temporary interruption to their income.

According to the SurveyMonkey survey, an overwhelming majority of respondents reported having less than $500 remaining each month after covering essential living costs.

Among all respondents, 20% said they generally break even each month, and 17% reported spending more than they earn, leaving them in a monthly deficit. Only a minority said they consistently have significant disposable income remaining after paying bills.

For households already living paycheque to paycheque, the picture is even more challenging. The survey found that 90% of those respondents have almost no money left after meeting basic financial obligations, while 47% either break even or operate at a monthly deficit.

Among respondents who reported ending each month with a financial deficit, the size of those shortfalls differed considerably.

The survey found 25% fall short by less than $100 each month, 26% report deficits between $101 and $250, 37% say they are short between $251 and $1,000, and 12% face monthly deficits exceeding $1,000

Those figures illustrate how even relatively small budget gaps can accumulate over time, often forcing households to rely on savings, credit cards or loans simply to cover routine expenses. The survey also found that ongoing financial stress is reshaping long-term personal and financial decisions.

According to SurveyMonkey, 61% of respondents said money pressures have forced them to postpone important life milestones. Those delayed plans include saving for retirement, purchasing a home, buying a vehicle, getting married, and making other significant financial commitments.

Rather than building wealth or investing for the future, many households report focusing primarily on covering immediate living expenses.

More than half of those surveyed said they feel more financially stressed today than they did one year ago. Among the biggest contributors to that stress were insufficient savings (45%), credit card debt (30%), auto insurance costs (25%), and medical expenses (23%).

The findings suggest that while inflation has eased from its post-pandemic peak, many households continue struggling with elevated everyday costs and limited financial reserves. The survey also highlights how little financial flexibility many Americans have.

Among those living paycheque to paycheque, 71% said even a one-week delay in receiving their wages would create financial problems. 50% described such a delay as a major hardship, and 21% said it would trigger a financial emergency. Only 23% believed a delayed paycheque would be a minor inconvenience.

Most Americans Believe Today's Children Will Be Worse Off Financially Than Their Parents

 

The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between May 1st and 4th of a nationwide sample of 1,573 adults (including 1,409 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.3 points for registered voters.

Most Say Trump's Policies Are Making Their Financial Situation Worse

The chart above reflects the results of the CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between February 25th and 27th of a nationwide sample of 2,264 adults, with a 2.5 point margin of error.

 

Trump's Financial Situation Was Shaky - Until He Was Re-Elected

 The following is a tiny part of an eye-opening article by Russ Buettner in The New York Times:

Last spring, even as Donald J. Trump’s march back toward the White House dominated public attention, his finances, largely out of view, faced serious threats.

His office building in Lower Manhattan generated too little cash to cover its mortgage, with the balance coming due. Many of his golf courses regularly lacked enough players to cover costs. The flow of millions of dollars a year from his stint as a television celebrity had mostly dried up.

And a sudden wave of legal judgments threatened to devour all his cash.

Then, with his clinching of the Republican nomination, everything began to change.

In the following months, Mr. Trump, along with his two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr., refocused the family business, forming a series of partnerships, especially in cryptocurrency, with investors who were willing to bank on his victory.

Once Mr. Trump won the presidency in November, that approach kicked into overdrive.

His family business announced numerous new deals that would financially benefit Mr. Trump directly, even as he made policy decisions that affected those industries or that involved countries in which the United States had political interests. Most glaringly, Mr. Trump is now both a partner in several crypto ventures and, as president, crypto’s chief policy regulator, and he has signaled that he wants his administration to have a hands-off approach to digital currencies. . . .

Records filed in the fraud case suggest that Mr. Trump’s cash was not the product of a steady and strong empire. His balance had fluctuated wildly, hitting a low of $52 million in 2018, a small figure for the size of his operation. The subsequent increase came largely from the sale of properties and a payout of more than $150 million from a passive investment.

Moreover, the version of Mr. Trump’s business that he projects — a real estate development company that executes large, complex tasks — hasn’t existed for a nearly a decade, since the Trumps’ last two major construction projects failed to make money.

Instead, Mr. Trump’s wealth is now built on monetizing the family name in new ways and, intentionally or not, the office of the presidency. It is an enterprise in pursuit of multimillion-dollar checks — from actual real estate developers, from cryptocurrency and social media enterprises run by others. It is also a business that hawks Trump-branded trinkets like watches and gold-toned mobile phones to the president’s passionate supporters.

Many of the deals open multiple channels for anyone to funnel cash to a sitting president, often in ways that are untraceable under current disclosure requirements. And because some of what is being sold is use of the president’s name, there are no clear metrics to gauge whether he has received market rate, a premium because of his office or, in effect, a hopeful bribe. . . .

The new cash has already helped solve old problems.

Last month, the Trumps paid off the $115 million mortgage coming due on 40 Wall Street. Analysts had said that the building’s low rental income would make banks squeamish about refinancing.

Going forward, the new enterprises represent a massive stockpile with the potential to cover legal judgments, mortgage payments and holes in balance sheets for years to come.

Trump Is Poised To Benefit Financially From The Presidency

In his first term, Donald Trump did something other presidents have not done. He used the office to make himself much richer. Now, in his second term, he is poised to do that on even a grander scale. Here is how Nicole Narea describes it at Vox.com: 

“Victory” cologne and perfume. “Crypto President” watches. Limited-edition “American Eagle” guitars. T-branded golf shoes and “Fight Fight Fight” high-top sneakers. 

These are just a sample of the many products licensed to bear President-elect Donald Trump’s brand, including some that he has promoted on his social media site Truth Social just weeks before his inauguration. If he continues to hawk his merchandise after returning to the White House, that could raise ethical concerns. 

Consumer goods may be the least of Trump’s issues, however. He has a number of business ventures — including his social media platform, a nascent crypto firm, and the Trump Organization’s partnerships in the Middle East — that could present conflicts of interest, make the presidency vulnerable to foreign influence, and violate federal law. . . .

Trump made an ethics pledge for a second term, but it doesn’t make any commitments in terms of how he might resolve his persistent conflicts of interest stemming from his now even more sprawling businesses. This time, there are many more ways that he could use the presidency for his own personal gain — and potentially be vulnerable to the influence of foreign actors. 

“He’s essentially flouting ethics rules and conflicts of interest laws much more blatantly, much more obviously than last time,” Scherb said. “He’s not even trying to hide what he’s doing at all this time.”

Chief among these conflicts of interest is his stake in the publicly traded parent company of Truth Social, the president-elect’s social media platform. Just after he won the election, that stake was worth $3.5 billion. The value of the company’s stock has oscillated in the month since, but Trump’s stake still makes up a large portion of his estimated $6.8 billionnet worth.

Never before has a president had such a significant stake in a publicly traded company, and for good reason: Foreign actors could easily and entirely legally buy up its stock, inflating its value and Trump’s net worth. Not only that, they could also “threaten to just dump all their shares at once, which would crater his net worth,” giving them potentially a “huge amount of leverage over the president,” said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for CREW.

The Trump Organization has also recently struck a series of deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars to construct luxury hotels and properties in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as established a partnership with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf. That has drawn Trump into an even closer relationship with the Saudis, which dates back to 2017 when he made the country stop number one on his first overseas trip as president.

“That’s an easy way for the Saudis to pump money into the Trump org,” Libowitz said. 

In September, Trump also launched a crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, alongside his sons and his new Middle East envoy, billionaire real estate tycoon Steve Witkoff.

Libowitz raised concerns about a $30 million investment in the company from Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who is currently fighting fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump and his family are expected to net roughly $20 million thanks to that deal, according to the BBC. Notably, Trump has recently nominated crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the SEC.

Scherb said he isn’t expecting robust oversight of these conflicts of interest from the incoming Republican-controlled Congress.

Trump Releases His FEC-Required Financial Report

Donald Trump has released is financial disclosure report (late, as usual). For masochists among you, you can go here to read the entire 101 page report. For the rest of us, CNN has provided a short synopsis. Here is what they say the report contains:

The filing includes the listing of hundreds of Trump’s assets, from properties like his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to royalties from his books. 

Trump reported more than $5 million in income from speaking engagements, according to the financial disclosure report. 

The former president also reported earning between $100,001 to $1 million in income from NFTs according to the filing. 

Additionally, he reported that Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., an umbrella company connected to his social media venture, Truth Social, is valued between $5,000,001 and $25 million. But Trump, who owns 90% of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., reported little to no income from that asset. 

The filing underscores the global reach of Trump’s business interests as he campaigns for president yet again. He reported, for instance, more than $5 million in royalties from what is described as “DT Marks Oman LLC.” 

The New York Times reported in November that the Trump Organization had struck a deal with a Saudi real estate company to build a Trump hotel, villa and golf course in Oman as part of a $4 billion project. 

A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to questions about the filing Friday evening.

Of the 16 books listed by Trump, “The Art of the Deal” – his 1987 memoir that dispensed business advice – was the biggest money-maker, netting royalties between $100,000 and $1 million, according to the disclosure. Most of the books drew royalties of less than $201. 

According to the filing, the majority of former first lady Melania Trump’s income comes from royalties through MKT World LLC, which she lists between $1 million to $5 million, as well as rental income from a real estate deal in Slovenia, which provides between $1,000 to $15,000 in income. 

Trump reported paying off six mortgages and taking on two more on his existing properties. Two of the mortgage payoffs, for Miami and Washington properties, were loaned by Deutsche Bank – which said it would refrain from future business with Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. His Washington mortgage that was paid off was for the Old Post Office Building, which housed a Trump hotel near the White House. Trump’s company sold the lease on that property last year.