Depends on who is asking and why.
Remember those Federal Reserve surveys indicating many Americans can’t come up with $400 for an emergency? Other surveys at the same time concluded Americans spend between $700 and $1800 a month on non-necessities.
Amazing huh? And yet we only heard about the $400🤑
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Its entirely possible for both those things to be true, since they may include entirely different sets of people.
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Guess I would want to know who was conducting the “other surveys” and exactly what was considered a “necessity” …
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I say its both.
After I out got of high school (1980), I was paid on Thursdays. I would put gas in my truck, put money aside for insurance, pay my room and board, put money aside for lunch. Then start drinking what money I had left away. By Sunday morning, I was broke until Thursday. There was no money for emergencies or anything extra. I was single with no kids still living at home.
That only lasted about 6 months before I wised up. By 1984, I had a second part time job and I was saving my money and bought a house by 1986.
I spent 6 months wasting my money “experiencing life” before I wised up. It seems like most people wait until their 40s or 50s now when they realize that retirement is next.
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