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Originally Posted by lieqiang View Post
Interesting article, thanks.
From the graph they have in the second link it appears to be a relatively steady trend over the last 45 years going from 61% to 50% being middle class. Also interesting is percentage of people in upper class is growing a lot faster than number of people in lower class.
I ran their calculator, we were upper class in our working days but are now middle class in retirement. Downward spiral!
LOL and down into poverty. The problem in the future will be unless you are wealthy or poor, you are nothing to the government should you become sick. The middle class is heading for a train wreck but they are so worried about the poor they failed to look at what awaits them.
Here are my current monthly expenses for 2 adults.
Mortgage: $1,035
Health Insurance $80
Food & other Groceries: $400
Car Insurance: $95
Cell Phone: $58
Utilities: $150
Internet: $47
Cable: $125
Car Payment:$281
Dog Food:$38
Total Needed: $2,309
And cable could very easily go if needed.
How in the world do you have $80 health care insurance? Ours for 2 is over $800 a month but that was after Obamacare without a subsidy (much less coverage than before and more expensive). Kind of makes it a lot harder to become a millionaire.
How in the world do you have $80 health care insurance? Ours for 2 is over $800 a month but that was after Obamacare without a subsidy (much less coverage than before and more expensive). Kind of makes it a lot harder to become a millionaire.
My wife and I work and each are on our own health plans.
The arguement that 'working class' people couldnt afford a basic health ins policy is absolute horses***. I had a pretty basic health ins policy offered to me working at Ace Hardware when I was in high school and beyond. i was making like $9/hr.
And I fully understand that those of you that somehow think that ACA is a good idea would also try to tell me the sky is not blue on a sunny summer day.
I was making $5 an hour and had a Prudent Buyer 80% hospital plan I paid for every month...
Growing up we had no health plan... the doctor accepted payments and that is what we did.
Everyone pushed out of the middle class deserved it for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and learning a trade.
Ah, yes, you mean like Ronald Reagan. He certainly pulled himself up by his bootstraps. A tall, handsome white man with a sonorous voice and a college education (earned during the Great Depression, no less!) who worked as a lifeguard in the summers when he was a C student in a religious school. He was a radio star in Iowa within a couple of years of his graduation and then set off for Hollywood where a single screen test led to a seven-year contract and 19 roles in his first TWO YEARS with Warner Brothers. Two wives, a union presidency (!), and a couple of popular TV programs later and BINGO, he's governor of California.
Man, those were some bootstraps. But I hear we all have them ...
Everyone pushed out of the middle class deserved it for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and learning a trade.
The old pull yourself up by the bootstraps almost totally ruined my back. After the car accident, I forced myself to work in a menial job (which I enjoyed, especially after having spent 30+ years in executive assistant positions). But, it was exactly what I should not have been doing & my sciatic nerve was pinched for 2 years before I finally had a MRI & then an operation.
Oh, my back will never be fully healed but at least I can walk with a cane or walker now. Can't walk far but I have done 2 blocks. Not always, but sometimes.
So there are times we should not be pulling those bootstraps up.
Here are my current monthly expenses for 2 adults.
Mortgage: $1,035
Health Insurance $80
Food & other Groceries: $400
Car Insurance: $95
Cell Phone: $58
Utilities: $150
Internet: $47
Cable: $125
Car Payment:$281
Dog Food:$38
Total Needed: $2,309
And cable could very easily go if needed.
Now I would consider this hand to mouth if that was all we had, but it's all we would need to pay our bills at the end of the month.
But how many places are as cheap as Missouri? My SIL lives in Southern Missouri and rents a 2 bdrm house for $275 a month, you can't rent a storage locker for that in parts of California. And your health insurance- that's incredibly cheap, my guess is that it's about 90% subsidized by your employer and the only employers I know of with that kind of subsidy are public agencies and a few union shops.
we live in queens in nyc and even though we have a 7 figure retirement income we still have to watch what we spend . we have about 35k in after tax dollars just going for rent and health and long term care insurance . heck every time we go to see the kids and grand kids just the 2- tolls are 30 bucks to get to new jersey , with lunch and gas it is over 100 bucks a visit .
I can't imagine someone who has a 7 figure (over 1 million) in retirement income worrying about $30 bridge tolls
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