Anecdotally as someone in a family all of whom are thriving financially during the pandemic, here are possible reasons it could be true.
* My student loan payments are frozen, I believe the total balance of student loans that are frozen is something like 85% country wide.
* People working remotely = low transit expenses.
* No live events = low entertainment expenses.
* Raging pandemic = low travel expenses.
* Investment = stock market has been very profitable since march. I made 100% last year just on random long term investment.
Basically, if you have a job that was exceeding the minimum threshold of living expenses, any of the extraneous things you were spending money on, other than eating out maybe, have evaporated.
Obviously there is a notable segment of the population that is not doing well, can barely if at all cover day to day expenses, and unemployment has gone up, but that segment isn't necessarily a majority.
That's all just speculation though, I'm not claiming parent is correct.
* My student loan payments are frozen, I believe the total balance of student loans that are frozen is something like 85% country wide.
* People working remotely = low transit expenses.
* No live events = low entertainment expenses.
* Raging pandemic = low travel expenses.
* Investment = stock market has been very profitable since march. I made 100% last year just on random long term investment.
Basically, if you have a job that was exceeding the minimum threshold of living expenses, any of the extraneous things you were spending money on, other than eating out maybe, have evaporated.
Obviously there is a notable segment of the population that is not doing well, can barely if at all cover day to day expenses, and unemployment has gone up, but that segment isn't necessarily a majority.
That's all just speculation though, I'm not claiming parent is correct.