Almost 1/2 of US Households Exhaust Their Salaries

The Federal Reserve has declared economic growth "solid." But several new reports show most Americans are treading along a dangerous financial tightrope, where one slip could be devastating.

Nearly half of U.S. households — 47 percent — say they spend all of their income, go into debt or dip into savings to meet their annual expenses, according to an analysis of Fed survey data released Thursday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"They could not withstand a serious financial emergency," said Diana Elliott, a Pew research manager who co-wrote the analysis. "That really is the contrast to the macroeconomic story" of a recovering economy.

"Macro indicators tell us a lot, but they don't tell us what is specifically happening within families," she said.

If a typical middle-class household had to weather a period of joblessness without any income, they would exhaust their available savings within 21 days, the analysis found. If that same family also cashed in all their retirement investments to get by, they would burn through those assets within four months.

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