At which point, it actually kind of makes sense to blow your entire income on lifestyle.
An aside, if you’re spending 100% of your income on just lifestyle stuff… you don’t to work at all if your retirement covers it.
Well then now we know that the media will happily use unreasonable definitions to bolster stats for click bait stories and headlines.
People assume paycheck to paycheck means "Spending each paycheck entirely on absolute necessities to live" but the survey definition is "Do you save any money from your take home pay every pay period".
This is how you get people at every income level reporting they live paycheck to paycheck.
Necessary spending is food, utilities, clothes, rent. But not eating out, fancy housing is a nice neighborhood, designer clothes, etc.
How I got here is living way below my means in my twenties, saving up tons of money, and nowadays living at my means while still maxing retirement. I also have almost all that saved money invested, which just grows the pot as it sits. I also have zero debt besides a 3% mortgage.
So basically I spend all of every paycheck, after retirement has been deducted, but if I lost my job I could maintain my current life with zero income for a few years before running dry.