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I don't want to share our family's gross income, but here's a list of key expenses of living in the Cleveland area, the 2nd cheapest city to be "middle-class":
Nanny - $25K (because our parents work or live far away, and can't watch our two young children)
Daycare - $7K (part-time, because we want our daughter to have a running start when she's off to school later this year)
Healthcare - $10K+ (Includes premiums, prescriptions and out-of-pocket expenses)
Taxes - $20K+ (Fed, State, Local, Local (yes, I did local twice), SSI, Medica)
Car - $8.5K+ (Including financing, insurance, maintenance, tolls and gas)
Bank Loan - $7K (in order to stay afloat with our current "lifestyle", this is what we can pay back, not what we put in)
Rent - $14.4K (rental house in the cheapest neighborhood in Shaker Heights, in a safe'ish and diverse neighborhood close enough to the train station for me to walk)
We still have to eat and turn the heat and lights on, and this is more money than we make in a year. This also does not include a loan we took from both of our parents when I was out of a job for a bit years ago.
Kids and healthcare have made us live closer to lower-middle class than middle class, on a higher average income than the median. Our middle-class values of placing our children's health and education at the forefront is clearly driving a big percentage of our family expenses, plus, both my wife and myself have medical conditions that always put us at the out-of-pocket max in healthcare expenses. I don't know how anyone does it on say $30K, the supposed median of Cleveland.
A lot of people don't really hire nanies though and that's a LARGE portion of budget.
Simple. They run large balances on credit cards and probably overdraft their bank accounts every other month or so.
IMO, an "upper middle class" lifestyle is when you don't have to worry about budgeting. Wanna go to Bermuda? No problem. Wanna lease a new car? No problem. Wanna eat out at nice restaurants 3 times per week? Easy. You're basically free of the financial worries of most ordinary Americans without having to exercise much fiscal discipline.
Of course, there are people with upper middle class incomes ($150K+) who experience the same financial woes as poorer people.
Thats because a lot of upper middle class and rich people don't watch their finances. My cousin is an exec and makes 300k a year and he is only 37 years old and he told me he does not even look at price tags of anytime anymore, basically if he wants it he buys it. This is the mentality that has pro athletes broke after their playing days thou. Americans need to learn to be more thrifty.
This is average annual day care cost per child. So if you've got two kiddies, you might be shelling out $3,000 per month in some states. We haven't even gotten to personal savings, retirement savings, and college savings yet.
I eat at restaurants every meal, nice restaurants once a day for dinner. I own a car (not lease) that is worth more than the annual salary of most tech nerds in San Francisco. I take frequent vacations, and I spend maybe 1000s of dollars a week on nice alcohol. But I still watch price tags, because my money supply is not unlimited. For example, if I go to a restaurant that is 200$ per meal one night, the next couple nights I will limit it to 50$ per my dinner meal.
I eat at restaurants every meal, nice restaurants once a day for dinner. I own a car (not lease) that is worth more than the annual salary of most tech nerds in San Francisco. I take frequent vacations, and I spend maybe 1000s of dollars a week on nice alcohol. But I still watch price tags, because my money supply is not unlimited. For example, if I go to a restaurant that is 200$ per meal one night, the next couple nights I will limit it to 50$ per my dinner meal.
I eat at restaurants every meal, nice restaurants once a day for dinner. I own a car (not lease) that is worth more than the annual salary of most tech nerds in San Francisco. I take frequent vacations, and I spend maybe 1000s of dollars a week on nice alcohol. But I still watch price tags, because my money supply is not unlimited. For example, if I go to a restaurant that is 200$ per meal one night, the next couple nights I will limit it to 50$ per my dinner meal.
Bite me.
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