A Goldman Sachs survey suggests even high-income Americans are struggling to build savings.
More than a third of people making over $300,000 say they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s recent 2026 retirement report. Goldman Sachs based the research on a July 2026 survey of 5,106 U.S. adults, including both retirees and people who were still working.
“One of the more remarkable findings is whether or not financial security improves linearly with income,” Chris Ceder, a senior retirement strategist at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, recently told Yahoo Finance.
The survey found that financial strain does not decline as pay rises. Instead, Goldman Sachs found a U-shaped pattern. Americans earning between $100,000 and $300,000 reported feeling less financially stretched than both lower-income workers and those making more than $300,000.
That same divide appears in other measures of financial health, including making retirement contributions and relying on minimum credit-card payments, Ceder said.
Data from credit cards illustrates the trend. About 40% of workers earning under $100,000 said they pay only the minimum on their cards, or less. That share falls to 35% among those earning $100,000 to $300,000, then rises to 42% among people earning more than $300,000.
The pressure is especially visible among the country’s highest earners . Nearly half of respondents making at least $500,000 said they made only the minimum payment on a credit card this year, up from 39% a year earlier, according to Goldman Sachs’ retirement trends survey. That finding challenges the assumption that a larger paycheck automatically creates more financial flexibility.
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