Hate to out myself but: I resemble this remark currently and consider myself "cash poor". Mind you liquidating shit like your IRA genuinely sucks and should be avoided if possible because you're essentially setting money on fire doing it....but you're definitionally NOT "paycheck to paycheck" if you actually have a relatively decent amount of money in an IRA. "Paycheck to paycheck" straight-up means that if you lose your paycheck that month you can't buy groceries, make a rent payment, or potentially both. It doesn't mean I might have to withdraw X thousand dollars from my account and pay the taxes on it plus a 10% penalty.
Hate to out myself but: I resemble this remark currently and consider myself "cash poor". Mind you liquidating shit like your IRA genuinely sucks and should be avoided if possible because you're essentially setting money on fire doing it....but you're definitionally NOT "paycheck to paycheck" if you actually have a relatively decent amount of money in an IRA. "Paycheck to paycheck" straight-up means that if you lose your paycheck that month you can't buy groceries, make a rent payment, or potentially both. It doesn't mean I might have to withdraw X thousand dollars from my account and pay the taxes on it plus a 10% penalty.
Confession, this is sort of where I am right now too. If I lost my job I'd live, but I'd have to dip into some funds I'd rather not.