(Image by F01 PHOTO on Shutterstock)
In A Nutshell
- Half of Americans are struggling to pay monthly bills on time, with an equal number finding it difficult to afford basic necessities like groceries
- Tax refunds have become survival money rather than bonus money, with 73% saying they need their refund more than ever and only 14% planning to spend it on anything fun
- 38% of Americans have been forced to move due to costs, with younger generations hit hardest; half of Gen Z relocated because they couldn’t afford where they lived
- Most Americans have given up on their ideal location, with 64% of Gen Z believing they’ll never be able to afford living where they want to live
Rent is due. The electric bill sits on the counter. The grocery receipt from last week still stings. For half of Americans, keeping up with basic monthly bills has become nearly impossible.
A nationwide survey of 5,000 Americans from Talker Research reports 52% now struggle to pay bills like rent on time each month, while an equal number are struggling to afford necessities like groceries. Nine in 10 people believe the U.S. is experiencing a full-blown cost-of-living crisis, and nearly eight in 10 said everything became more expensive in 2025.
The question isn’t whether Americans are struggling. It’s what they’re doing about it.
Tax Refunds Have Become Survival Money
What used to be bonus money for a vacation or a splurge has become the difference between making it through the month or not.
Half of respondents said they expect a tax refund this year, and among those, 73% admitted they need it more than ever before. Six in 10 said they need their refund earlier than usual just to stay afloat. The desperation shows up most clearly among younger Americans, where 74% of Gen Z expecting refunds said they need the money earlier than ever, compared to just 34% of baby boomers. That gap tells a story about which generation has any financial cushion left.
Where the money goes tells a similar story. Nearly three in 10 people plan to use refund money on necessities like groceries and gas. Another quarter will put it toward savings or paying down debt. Only 14% said they’d spend refund money on anything fun.
Think about that for a moment. When tax refunds stop feeling like extra money and start functioning as a financial backstop, something fundamental has shifted about what it means to get by in America.
“Tax refunds are often the biggest checks many Americans receive each year and now more than ever, they are a critical source of liquidity that people are not only counting on, but are in need of earlier than ever,” said Erin Bruehl, VP of Communications at Current.com, which commissioned the study. “They’ve become lifelines to pay down debt and avoid missed payments and late fees.”
When Home Becomes Unaffordable
The cost crisis isn’t just making people broke. It’s making them homeless in a different sense, forcing them to abandon places that used to feel like theirs.
More than a third of respondents have already moved because where they were living became too expensive. About a third of those relocated to a different city, while another third left their state entirely, searching for someplace they could actually afford. Half of Gen Z respondents reported moving due to costs, compared to just 19% of baby boomers.
What’s worse is how many Americans have stopped dreaming. About half of all respondents don’t believe they’ll ever be able to afford living in their “ideal” city or state. Among Gen Z, nearly two-thirds have abandoned hope of affording their ideal city. That’s not just about housing markets or inflation. That’s about an entire generation learning to aim lower because aiming higher feels pointless.
The geography of affordability matches expectations. Coastal states and mountain resort areas rank as largely out of reach, with Hawaii, Alaska, and Colorado at the bottom. California, New York, and Illinois aren’t far behind. Meanwhile, Southern and Midwestern states dominate the affordable rankings, with Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma at the top.
But “affordable” is relative. Even in the states people rated most affordable, only about six in 10 respondents said they could actually manage the cost of living there. That means even in the cheapest parts of America, four in 10 people look at the prices and think: not for me.
The New American Math
The numbers in this survey don’t just describe a financial crisis. They describe a psychological one.
When half the country can’t reliably pay monthly bills, when nine out of 10 people agree there’s a crisis, when an entire generation has given up on living where they want to live, that’s not a temporary rough patch. That’s a recalibration of what counts as normal.
Consider what it means that tax refunds have transformed from windfalls into emergency funds. Or that being able to spend 11% of a windfall on something fun now counts as privileged. Or that “affordable” states still feel out of reach to 40% of people. These aren’t just statistics about money. They’re statistics about hope, or the lack of it.
The survey was commissioned by Current and conducted by Talker Research between December 2025 and January 2026. It captured Americans at a specific moment, but for many Americans, this no longer feels like a temporary rough patch. This is where we are now. The American promise used to include the idea that hard work could get you somewhere. Now it just might keep you from falling further behind.
Survey Notes
Methodology
Talker Research surveyed 5,000 Americans state by state, with 100 respondents from each state. The sample was split evenly by generation: 1,250 Gen Z, 1,250 millennials, 1,250 Gen X, and 1,250 baby boomers. All respondents had internet access and planned to file taxes.
The survey was commissioned by Current, a financial services company, and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between December 17, 2025, and January 5, 2026.
Limitations
The survey methodology has several considerations. First, the sample included only people with internet access who plan to file taxes, which may exclude some lower-income populations and those working in cash economies. Second, responses reflect perceptions of affordability rather than objective measures of cost burden, meaning what one person considers “affordable” may differ from another person’s definition. Third, the sample size of 100 respondents per state means state-level findings have larger margins of error than the national findings. Finally, generational comparisons should be interpreted with the understanding that Gen Z respondents are at different life stages than baby boomers, which naturally affects their financial situations and housing expectations beyond inflation and cost factors alone.
Funding and Disclosures
The research was commissioned by Current, a financial services company that offers banking and tax refund services. The company has a financial interest in highlighting consumer need for early access to tax refunds, as this aligns with its business model.
Why is this in the news? It’s by design, been tgat way for a while now..
Is affordability transient?
The Biden scamenomics created inflation the pushed the cost of goods outside the realm of affordability for retirees. Screwed all of us.
Anyone remember all the gnashing of teeth and wailing about forcing a $15 minimum wage for non-skilled employees? Once wages were raised, employees who were not minimum wage demanded more money. Higher wages without increases in productivity cause inflation. So now, we’re seeing the effects. Don’t you feel better knowing low wage low-skill employees are paid ‘fairly’? Take a look at YOUR spending power. See how everything has jumped up. So now, the low skilled employees are in the same boat as before… can’t afford to live now at $15 per hour.
Wonder if ten million plus illegal aliens in four years was relevant to the cost of living.
The CPI, on which the rate of inflation is based, does not include the rapidly rising cost (California) of electricity, water, home insurance, auto insurance, taxes, auto registration, home ownership, etc. Some of these are going up over 30% per year.
These people are wrong! Our president Donald Trump says that affordability is a democrat hoax. If people would just do what our president Donald Trump says and stop complaining, we wouldn’t have all these protests. Think of that when you land in our nations capital at Trump Intergalactic Airport (formerly named for some loser general) to visit the Arch d’Trump!
Can’t we just print more money and spend it on millions of Americans that are here uninvited? How did that work out last time?
People who run their finances on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis, developed that habit years back. It is not a reflection of the times, it is a self-acquired trait they instilled in their lives by insisting they have the latest phones, most popular clothing items, eat more meals out than at home. They spend every dime and think nothing of running up a tab on the credit card that only puts them further behind what they can afford. It is multi-generational thing that has been only getting worse.
So many Americans need money…. Where did it all go?
LOL.
If you are expecting a tax refund but you need the money now then just take less out of your paycheck – duh.
Too bad conservatives don’t want to go back to golden age American tax policies. We would immediately solve our problems if that’s what we did. Reagan really destroyed this country.
Reagan’s introduction of the Libertarian/NeoLiberals into government put America on a fast track to oblivion.
America was warned. Republicans lied and lied, and lied, and lied, in the service of the wealthy and corporations.
Now America is dead as a nation. Your parents should have listened.
We have a problem America. This is about Republicans and Democrats kicking cans and spending money for years. Is Trump, Biden, Obama, bush… And we better start talking about how we’re going to solve this. Right now it hurts, but the pain will come after 2035 when social security cuts payments. Time is of the essence.
You aren’t going to solve it. The next move will be to cheat those who have invested in America through the purchase of American bonds and currency by debasing that currency through the rapid expansion in the money supply and the resulting devaluation of the dollar by an order of magnitude or more.
That is what the tariffs are for. To get Americans used to the idea that imports will be vastly more expensive and Americans vastly poorer.
When taxpayers give their money to the government instead of calculating their taxes so that they get a minimum of their own money “back” in April, instead of keeping what is theirs in the first place for their year-long financial planning indicates to me that we’re not talking about very bright people to begin with. These people can’t afford groceries but they’re planning on a large refund of their own money in April? DUH
It’s usually not a refund of their money, it’s a transfer of other people’s money through EITC. Welfare nation.
Only confused Jack McCready knows what he is talking about. Or at least fantasizes that he does.
So when will the mainstream media acknowledge the affordability crisis lies squarely on the Dems shoulders? Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act pumped trillions of unecessary spending into into an economy that was already recovering. Add to that 20 million illegals let into the country during his term who then receive free housing, free food, free health insurance, free education, free EBT cards, and god knows what else. Our govt expects middle class America to not only pay for themselves but now to pay for a legion of illegals that can’t or won’t support themselves and are a drain on safety net systems for Americans? When did illegals become more important than Americans? I’ll tell you; when lefties thought they could get them in to change the census, then gain more power to ultimately grant amenesty to gain a permanent majority. Biden, Mayorkis, and the whole f*^+ng lot should be in prison. They ruined this country in a mere 4 years.
LOL. Griff has a very low IQ. All MAGATs do.
Such an intelligent reply! You must be a Mensa candidate. MAGAT. Did you think that up all by yourself?
Good points. I’ve always said, You can burn your house to the ground before lunch but it will take six months to rebuild it.
Biden’s administration did a lot of damage that will take years to recover from.
Yes, people are moving because prices rose year after year due to Biden’s inflation. You can’t snap your finger and make them evaporate. Make a list of the taxes California has imposed on us and you’ll see why my husband and I left. Inflation is down substantially, eggs are a great example. Premium gas is two dollars lower in east coast states than in California. Blue states love to tax anything that moves so they can con the economically uneducated into thinking Communism is the solution. Open your eyes and educate yourself. Communism has made 3rd world countries unlivable unless you are one of the ruling comrades.
I’m really not certain what timeline/dimension you are living in but your comment is patently FALSE. How do you figure/calculate/compute that “inflation is down substantially”? You base this on the price of eggs?! The primary reason gas is down slightly is because LESS people are buying it hence the price of oil goes down. Simple suppy/demand economics. Has it, maybe crossed your mind the fact that there are less sales of gas is because more and more people are NOT buying it, as they can’t AFFORD it?
You’re the one who really needs to “educate yourself” on how simple microeconomics really works. Yet, you lecture everyone who reads your post that folks in “blue states” are economically uneducated. You need to sweep off your own front porch.
Please leave California so that the average IQ of the state rises.
Eggs and gas are the only thing you MAGAts ever point to. Lmao as nearly everything else is more expensive.
Want to know why it’s so expensive? The grift and graft of Democrats and their insane energy policies under Biden along with and the import, care, and feeding of 20 million illegals have resulted in 72% inflation since 2019.
Can’t fix that over night, but the Trump administration is making head way — look at the low gas prices especially in red states! Border is secure which has stopped the flow of illegals. Also finding and stopping Democrat fraud in every major benefits prorgam at state and federal levels. Looks like 2026 will bring better times for taxpaying US citizens.
Just keep drinking the Trump kool aid and believing all the lies. Shoe stew on the menu.
“Want to know why it’s so expensive? The grift and graft of Democrats and their insane energy policies under Biden along with and the import, care, and feeding of 20 million illegals have resulted in 72% inflation since 2019.” Mike
So you have now publicly demonstrated that you are a moron. LOL.
Did you note all the rotting produce in America’s fields this year? No workers to pick the crops.
Immigrants = workers.
Immigrants = consumers.
Net result… Immigrants have the same effect as citizens.
Poor foncused little MAGAt.
Reading through the comments, it shows how you repeatedly want to demonstrate what a S F you are to everyone else. Enough already. It was obvious after your first post.
I think that is responsible for some of our issues, not the entire 72% of inflation lol. 20 million isn’t that many people. We are over allocating cause and distorting facts thus having ridiculous policy as a result.
lol Gen Z voted for Trump, long may he fleece them blind.
I really don’t understand. Gas prices are lower, and grocery prices have leveled off. We also have record average hourly wages and record household net worth.
I think there is a big problem, particularly with young people in discerning between wants and needs. I wonder how many of those responding have a newer car, the latest smart phone, eat of offer, wear designer athletic wear, and went on a nice vacation or two?
The other thing is what people do vs what people say. The data is contra to the narrative.
If you look at the whole picture now of wages, net worth, and employment it’s difficult to debate hard times. And what is must concerning is how people will react when hard times actually come.
US grocery inflation (food-at-home) in 2025 continued to rise, with prices increasing by 2.3% for the year, according to USDA Economic Research Service data. While this rate was lower than the peaks of 2022-2023,, prices remained high, particularly for coffee (+11.8%), beef, and other staples, even as egg prices dropped 21%. December 2025 saw a noticeable 3.1% year-over-year jump.
But of course rents are sky high, medical insurance is at unsustainable levels, university costs are beyond what can be afforded etc.
The only cost that has come down is eggs. LOL.
America deserves EVERYTHING it gets
And then some. Quite a bit more actually.
This is where the country’s been headed for decades. As soon as the rich realized they could buy politicians, policy and law it was all over. Add to that Citizens United and the story’s complete. It’s NOT unexpected. It’s exactly what the rich want. They want of nation of super-rich only.
Crawl back in your communistic hole. It’s not the Super Rich who caused this- its the Democratic policies in places like LA and NY. Health Insurance was affordable until Obama Care, Rents in LA were affordable until they kept pushing rent control- it weakend supply so much that those that were not low income couldn’t afford it anymore. Same for Unions- 20+ an hour for doing a job that a high schooler used to do- of course prices rose. Any real economist will easily explain all this but nope doesn’t fit the agenda so they say it’s greed. Supermarkets make a 1% margin at best- go back to wages based on skill and those will come down. but it’s logic so don’t expect you to understand that.
Andrew expresses pure logic. Pure Retard Logic.
So the tariffs had nothing to do with this? How about people who have to pay more than ever for their healthcare. Pretty odd coincidence that this is all happening so soon aftet they took effect. Do I smell a Trumper nearby? Say goodbye to those Congressional and Senate majorities and hello to a lame duck president and more impeachment. No one to blame except Fat Donnie.
AI is about to throw a monkey wrench in all that. More than half the population won’t be needed for work anymore. So you have the choice between letting people starve to death or taxing and maintaining population levels. Same choice communist countries had to make when they wanted fast industrialization.