58% of Russian households had no liquid savings in the spring of 2026, according to a survey by the Higher School of Economics of the National Research University. Since the fall of 2024, their share has dropped from 65%. Most families still faced unplanned expenses without a cash reserve. In October's Alpha-Money survey, 86% of participants at least occasionally ran out of money before payday. 15% of more than 1,000 respondents acknowledged frequent shortages. Most often it was necessary to find 5-20 thousand rubles. A person with an empty account, even when moving to a vacant position, needs money between layoffs and the first payment. Vocational training adds expenses and months of uncertainty. You have to pay in advance for going out of need. On October 30, the analyst estimated the increase in financial anxiety over 3 years by 2-3 times. Referrals to psychologists he described repeated the search for a more profitable profession without transitory losses, the forced refusal to buy housing and travel, and financial conflicts at work and in business. The desire to earn more coexists with the inability to risk your current earnings. This constraint works in favor of the current employer. To decide to move, an employee needs an offer that also compensates for the risk of running out of money. Although there is no suitable option, the old company can manage without increasing wages or improving conditions. The demand for rare specialists leaves them an opportunity to bargain. Even for a skilled worker, this advantage is weakened if the transition involves a loss of income. It is cheap for the company to keep such an employee. The company, which can use his labor more productively, has to pay for the transition itself - for example, training while keeping the profits. A lack of household savings increases recruitment pressures and delays the reallocation of the workforce. The economy can at the same time need experts and keep them in jobs they have wanted to leave for a long time. At the store, anxiety changes the shopping schedule.

58% of Russian households had no liquid savings in the spring of 2026, according to a survey by the Higher School of Economics of the National Research University. Since the fall of 2024, their share has dropped from 65%. Most families still faced unplanned expenses without a cash reserve. In October's Alpha-Money survey, 86% of participants at least occasionally ran out of money before payday. 15% of more than 1,000 respondents acknowledged frequent shortages. Most often it was necessary to find 5-20 thousand rubles. A person with an empty account, even when moving to a vacant position, needs money between layoffs and the first payment. Vocational training adds expenses and months of uncertainty. You have to pay in advance for going out of need. On October 30, the analyst estimated the increase in financial anxiety over 3 years by 2-3 times. Referrals to psychologists he described repeated the search for a more profitable profession without transitory losses, the forced refusal to buy housing and travel, and financial conflicts at work and in business. The desire to earn more coexists with the inability to risk your current earnings. This constraint works in favor of the current employer. To decide to move, an employee needs an offer that also compensates for the risk of running out of money. Although there is no suitable option, the old company can manage without increasing wages or improving conditions. The demand for rare specialists leaves them an opportunity to bargain. Even for a skilled worker, this advantage is weakened if the transition involves a loss of income. It is cheap for the company to keep such an employee. The company, which can use his labor more productively, has to pay for the transition itself - for example, training while keeping the profits. A lack of household savings increases recruitment pressures and delays the reallocation of the workforce. The economy can at the same time need experts and keep them in jobs they have wanted to leave for a long time. At the store, anxiety changes the shopping schedule.