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1. You own a large, flat-screen TV, but it's NOT in the living room. Your living room perhaps contains books or a grand piano.
2. Your father went to college, your mother most likely went to college, all your brothers and sisters and cousins except the black sheep of the extended family attended at least some college, and your family's college education stretches back generations (except if you're newly upper middle class).
3. When traveling, you prefer to choose destinations that are "not touristy" and give an "authentic" taste of local life.
4. You listen to NPR in the car.
5. If 35 or older, you participate in the community through being on the board of some local chapter of an organization, or extensively volunteering for it with your valuable free time.
6. If you're male, you golf, if not for the love of it than because of social pressure.
7. You are familiar with the following food items, even if you're from flyover country: hummus, couscous, sashimi, banh mi, and risotto.
8. You sometimes watch foreign films, and consider dubbing an abomination - you would much prefer subtitles.
9. You strongly identify with your career.
10. From preschool or a younger age, you enroll your children in a multitude of extracurricular activities - piano lessons, ballet, tennis, water polo, etc.
11. Your children's academic success is paramount to you, and you set very high standards. If they get a "C" in a class, either their teacher or the child has much to answer for. When in high school, you make sure they take lots of AP courses, and unless they are the brightest of the bunch, you hire a SAT tutor. Deep down inside, there's a burning desire to boast that your children went to a high-ranked university, or at least NOT one of the lesser state colleges, and certainly not a community college.
12. You love "nature", the "outdoors", and the "wilderness", and like tread softly through the woods in your $250 hiking boots with your $250 bag and perhaps sleep in your $1,000 tent, or if a northern clime, in your expensive cross-country skis. It can suck losing iPhone connectivity, though.
13. If you're a female, you don sunglasses even when it isn't that sunny out.
14. You drive only foreign cars, preferably Mercedes-Benz or BMW.
15. Staying in shape and in style is a priority to you. You have a gym membership, perhaps in addition to a road bike you paid a pretty penny for.
16. You like, or feign to like, the fine arts, and have attended a classical music concert, opera, or play at least once or twice (going on a field trip as a kid not included). You consider it perfectly natural to listen to classical music or jazz radio and patronize art-house cinema.
17. Planning for your retirement is important, and you fully understand such things as 401Ks and Roth IRAs. You might even have a financial advisor. You watch the stock market and probably participate in it somehow.
18. If you're 40 or older, your house measures over 2,500 square feet in area. If you designed it, you made sure to implement "green" features. The kitchen is spacious. Especially if in a southwestern state, you probably have some paid help cleaning it, perhaps full-time.
19. You probably don't live in one, unless you are in your 20s or early 30s, but you love "authentic" and "vibrant" urban spaces such as those found in New York City, San Francisco, and Portland, with plentiful pedestrian traffic, ample public transportation, narrow streets, and storefronts that are right up to the sidewalk rather than behind a sea of parking.
20. You don't like the homogenization of the United States through chain stores and franchises, but deep down you love Trader Joe's, REI, Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, Chipotle, Macy's, IKEA, Target, and Fogo de Chao.
21. You want your children to be creative, imaginative, think out-of-the-box, and tolerant of differences. You perhaps even enjoy when they question one of your rules.
22. You regularly go to or host dinner parties. You have separate kitchen and dining rooms.
23. You have read, for leisure, at least one non-fiction title that does not fall into the category of self-help, automotive/technical, or religious books in the past year, and are familiar with authors, whom you often name-drop at above parties.
24. When your children are young, intellectual stimulation and creative expression is the primary goal of your toy-buying practices. No or limited cheap electronic playthings or radio-controlled monster trucks.
25. You have a rather refined taste in alcohol. You are familiar with local breweries, micro-brews, >$10 / bottle wines, and refined cocktails with non-obscene names.
1. You own a large, flat-screen TV, but it's NOT in the living room. Your living room perhaps contains books or a grand piano.
2. Your father went to college, your mother most likely went to college, all your brothers and sisters and cousins except the black sheep of the extended family attended at least some college, and your family's college education stretches back generations (except if you're newly upper middle class).
3. When traveling, you prefer to choose destinations that are "not touristy" and give an "authentic" taste of local life.
4. You listen to NPR in the car.
5. If 35 or older, you participate in the community through being on the board of some local chapter of an organization, or extensively volunteering for it with your valuable free time.
6. If you're male, you golf, if not for the love of it than because of social pressure.
7. You are familiar with the following food items, even if you're from flyover country: hummus, couscous, sashimi, banh mi, and risotto.
8. You sometimes watch foreign films, and consider dubbing an abomination - you would much prefer subtitles.
9. You strongly identify with your career.
10. From preschool or a younger age, you enroll your children in a multitude of extracurricular activities - piano lessons, ballet, tennis, water polo, etc.
11. Your children's academic success is paramount to you, and you set very high standards. If they get a "C" in a class, either their teacher or the child has much to answer for. When in high school, you make sure they take lots of AP courses, and unless they are the brightest of the bunch, you hire a SAT tutor. Deep down inside, there's a burning desire to boast that your children went to a high-ranked university, or at least NOT one of the lesser state colleges, and certainly not a community college.
12. You love "nature", the "outdoors", and the "wilderness", and like tread softly through the woods in your $250 hiking boots with your $250 bag and perhaps sleep in your $1,000 tent, or if a northern clime, in your expensive cross-country skis. It can suck losing iPhone connectivity, though.
13. If you're a female, you don sunglasses even when it isn't that sunny out.
14. You drive only foreign cars, preferably Mercedes-Benz or BMW.
15. Staying in shape and in style is a priority to you. You have a gym membership, perhaps in addition to a road bike you paid a pretty penny for.
16. You like, or feign to like, the fine arts, and have attended a classical music concert, opera, or play at least once or twice (going on a field trip as a kid not included). You consider it perfectly natural to listen to classical music or jazz radio and patronize art-house cinema.
17. Planning for your retirement is important, and you fully understand such things as 401Ks and Roth IRAs. You might even have a financial advisor. You watch the stock market and probably participate in it somehow.
18. If you're 40 or older, your house measures over 2,500 square feet in area. If you designed it, you made sure to implement "green" features. The kitchen is spacious. Especially if in a southwestern state, you probably have some paid help cleaning it, perhaps full-time.
19. You probably don't live in one, unless you are in your 20s or early 30s, but you love "authentic" and "vibrant" urban spaces such as those found in New York City, San Francisco, and Portland, with plentiful pedestrian traffic, ample public transportation, narrow streets, and storefronts that are right up to the sidewalk rather than behind a sea of parking.
20. You don't like the homogenization of the United States through chain stores and franchises, but deep down you love Trader Joe's, REI, Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, Chipotle, Macy's, IKEA, Target, and Fogo de Chao.
21. You want your children to be creative, imaginative, think out-of-the-box, and tolerant of differences. You perhaps even enjoy when they question one of your rules.
22. You regularly go to or host dinner parties. You have separate kitchen and dining rooms.
23. You have read, for leisure, at least one non-fiction title that does not fall into the category of self-help, automotive/technical, or religious books in the past year, and are familiar with authors, whom you often name-drop at above parties.
24. When your children are young, intellectual stimulation and creative expression is the primary goal of your toy-buying practices. No or limited cheap electronic playthings or radio-controlled monster trucks.
25. You have a rather refined taste in alcohol. You are familiar with local breweries, micro-brews, >$10 / bottle wines, and refined cocktails with non-obscene names.
Huh? That applies to a lot of people. It could even apply to me except for the kids part because I don't have kids. I never spent that much on hiking boots either but my tent sure was expensive, as were my x country skiis. I'm not familiar with all the foods in #7.
#18 I do not believe in McMansions or any other huge wasteful houses.
I don't go to chain stores or eat in chain restaurants and I seldom set foot in Walmart. I also don't think I want to buy my food in the same store where I could buy a tv.
I'm already retired and money is scarce --nothing to do with poor planing, though just bad luck.)
I've always considered myself just plain old middle class.
Upper middle class have boats and maybe private planes, go to the "best" colleges and send their kids there too. Private school, not public school. Lots of family heirlooms, never had to buy furniture because they inherited it. Lots of expensive international travel, lots of eating out in very expensive restaurants. Probably a lot more but I'm not upper middle class so I'm not sure--they will know better than I do. Somebody should ask them, that is, if we even care.
A lot of these apply to middle class as well. In the Northeast, everyone knows about tax sheltering because we get screwed in federal taxes compared to most of the nation.
Wow. I can check off each of these except for one, but I'm pretty sure I am considered just a regular girl who is not attached to any particular class.
Well, I live on hummus and couscous and have visited every microbrewery and brewpub in all three states where I have resided.
I am female, and I love golf.
My large flat screens are in my bedroom and the living room.
I only drive foreign cars.
I hate Walmart and dollar stores and never shop in any of them.
I frequently shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and I love Chipotle.
I think staying in shape is important for health reasons. I do have an expensive road bike but it is for transportation as well as exercise.
All of my vacations focus on the outdoors. Hiking, camping, backpacking, canoe trips, cycling adventures but I don't own an expensive tent. Good hiking boots are costly but worth the investment.
And I have never considered myself upper middle class. I don't even consider class at all.
Too many stereotypes in that post, IMO. I think it also trends too heavily toward upper middle class urbanites on the coasts and not enough toward the upper middle class who live in suburbs or away from the East & West Coasts.
Also, people who live on the coasts in places like the SF Bay Area can't afford 2500 square foot homes. Just being able to own a single family home on the coasts (without being "house poor") puts one into the upper middle class these days.
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