Here’s how high-income Americans keep spending in a shaky economy

Wealthier Households Are Using Stock Gains to Keep Their Spending Moving

Cybersecarmor.com – For many affluent Americans, higher prices have not meant an immediate pullback in spending. Instead, a growing number are drawing cash from investment portfolios and moving it into checking accounts, using years of stock-market gains to help cover everyday costs.

That pattern is especially clear among higher earners and older households, groups that generally hold a larger share of their wealth in stocks. It also highlights how differently households are experiencing an economy marked by persistent inflation, weak consumer confidence, limited savings and elevated debt.

Investment withdrawals have risen sharply

An analysis by the JPMorganChase Institute, based on checking-account activity for more than 20 million Chase customers since 2015, found that transfers from investment accounts into checking accounts have become far more common. Looking at activity from February through April each year, the share of Americans making those transfers climbed from 2.4% in 2015 to 8.2% in 2026.

The increase was even larger for the highest-income households. Among the top 10% of earners, 20.3% shifted money from investments to checking accounts in 2026, compared with 6.6% in 2015.

“Wealthy people and those over 65 are leading the rise, but withdrawals have increased across all age and income groups.”

For consumers with substantial holdings, selling investments or drawing on portfolio gains can provide a buffer when groceries, housing, services and other routine expenses become more expensive. That option is much less available to people whose budgets depend mainly on paychecks.

A widening divide in consumer spending

The findings add concrete evidence to concerns about a K-shaped economy, in which financially secure households continue gaining ground while lower-income consumers face greater strain. Middle- and lower-income Americans typically rely more heavily on wages for spending, rather than on returns from stocks and other investments.

Inflation-adjusted hourly earnings fell 0.3% between August 2025 and August 2026. At the same time, many households have reported poor sentiment about the economy, modest savings and heavy debt burdens.

“Real income growth has been kind of low for a while,” said George Eckerd, wealth and markets research director at JPMorganChase Institute.

Even with those pressures, high-income households have remained a major force behind consumer demand. The top 10% of earners accounted for 45.5% of spending during the first quarter of 2026, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said. The highest 20% represented roughly 60% of personal outlays, both figures near historic highs.

“The well-to-do are doing very well and thus spending with gusto and providing the key tailwind to economic growth,” Zandi said.

The concentration matters beyond individual household finances. Consumer spending is central to U.S. economic growth, so continued purchases by affluent consumers can help offset weaker demand elsewhere. Conversely, a meaningful retrenchment by those households could weaken a key support for the broader economy.

Older Americans are especially important

Age is a major part of the trend. People 55 and older were responsible for 46% of spending in the first quarter of 2026, Moody’s data shows. Older households are more likely to have accumulated investment assets over decades and may be more willing to use those assets after leaving the workforce.

Within the highest-income group, people over 65 showed the strongest increase in investment withdrawals. The portion of top earners in that age group moving money out of investments rose from 24% in 2019 to 37% in 2026.

“People who are sitting on decades of gains and are later in life and maybe not working any more, they are the ones who are showing up the strongest in this,” Eckerd said.

The typical stockholder among the top 10% of income earners held $1.1 million in stock during the third quarter of 2025, up from $624,000 at the end of 2022, figures from the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers show. That rising portfolio value gives many high-income investors more flexibility to fund purchases without depending entirely on current wages.

Market gains have created a sizable cushion

The stock market’s rise since the COVID-19 downturn has played a central role in expanding household wealth. The S&P 500 has more than tripled from its 2020 low. Total household net worth increased by $13 trillion to $196 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, Federal Reserve data shows.

Corporate equity holdings rose by $10.7 trillion from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2026, reaching $74 trillion. Wealth remains highly concentrated: the top 10% of American earners control 69% of it.

Consumer prices have increased roughly 30% since 2020. For households with large stock portfolios, strong incomes and meaningful savings, investment gains can help absorb that increase. Lower-income consumers may also sell stocks to pay bills, but they do so on a much smaller scale and generally have fewer assets to draw from.

That reliance on investment wealth also leaves spending vulnerable to market conditions. A short-lived market decline in 2022 led top earners to reduce withdrawals from their investment accounts. A deeper or longer downturn could therefore test whether affluent households continue supplying the spending momentum that has helped sustain the economy.