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This is a lot more in-line with my understanding. I remember having a discussion awhile back with someone about it, thinking they made a LOT more coming out the gate. Turns out they don't, with some exceptions like the ones mentioned in California.
This is a lot more in-line with my understanding. I remember having a discussion awhile back with someone about it, thinking they made a LOT more coming out the gate. Turns out they don't, with some exceptions like the ones mentioned in California.
It really depends. They can.Traveling nurses make more, working overnight's will get you significantly more, and there is usually OT pretty readily available, which can get you more. But for standard starting pay in most moderate COL areas in the US I think they typically start based on a 36 hour work week ~$45-55k.
That chart puts me, my husband and son in the upper class. I sure don't feel like our income is upper class though!!!
It's kind of a strange phenomenon, isn't it? Lots of people in this thread struggle with that concept, refusing to admit that they are upper class. They've been entrenched in their finances so much that they think having millions in the bank is still on par class-wise with those that have $10k in the bank and social security as their sole income.
This seems to be the common theme for many people's perception of class:
Lower class: poor people, low credit, living paycheck to paycheck, typically renters, might be in varying levels of debt. Filthy living conditions, run down old appliances, etc. Middle class: regular joes, good credit, typically homeowners, 2 cars and a yearly vacation, saves some for retirement Upper class: wear monacles and tophats, ride their golden helicopters over their caviar factories
Everybody wants to be a regular joe for some reason. A big problem with these definitions are how subjective they are. You can own an $80k home and two 15 year old cars, then take a trip each year to a waterpark. Are they in the same class as someone that owns an $800k home and 2 late-model luxury vehicles, and take a yearly trip to Europe? Of course not. Quality defines the difference.
In the end, it doesn't really matter though. It's not like you get an Upper Class Certification Card, with perks to skip waiting in lines, get free meals, complimentary cars, etc. Money just opens up more options.
Everybody wants to be a regular joe for some reason. A big problem with these definitions are how subjective they are. You can own an $80k home and two 15 year old cars, then take a trip each year to a waterpark. Are they in the same class as someone that owns an $800k home and 2 late-model luxury vehicles, and take a yearly trip to Europe? Of course not. Quality defines the difference.
In the end, it doesn't really matter though. It's not like you get an Upper Class Certification Card, with perks to skip waiting in lines, get free meals, complimentary cars, etc. Money just opens up more options.
the bolded is why I think 90% of our society believes they are middle class. Lifestyle inflation and your reference point. There are very few people making $500k/yr living in $140k homes and driving a 15 yr old Camry with insane amount of disposable income every month. Most people making $500k/yr are driving 70k Yukons with a mortgage payment on an $800k 3.5k sq ft home in a very nice neighborhood, a home that is nowhere close to being the biggest in the neighborhood. They are middle class when they look at their neighbors.
I also think this is part of the reason we are seeing the degradation of the "middle class", because we have become very consumeristic as a society. It's tough for a lot of people to not live paycheck to paycheck when you have to have a 2.5-3k sq ft house, with 4-5 bedrooms, 2 relatively new cars, cable television, 2 new Iphones, keep your home at 68 degrees year round, eat out 3-4x a week, go to the movies, and other social events, send your kids to summer camps, spend $300/month per person on groceries, and go to a foreign country every year on vacation. If I ask my parents what that lifestyle was when they were growing up (born in the late 50s), they definitely would not have considered it middle class, but for some reason we do now. My generation (millennials) seems to be the worst about it.
People make fun of me because I go to the library to get my books, I keep my house at 78-80 in the summer and 62-63 in the winter, I bring my lunch to work every day, I go hiking, kayaking, etc. for fun because its inexpensive. But I don't care because I'm the "middle class" person that isn't living near paycheck to paycheck and the millennial that is managing to save 33% of their income for retirement even with a baby in daycare.
If people actually stopped and looked at their habits they could find so much money. I know of several people I work with that eat out for breakfast and lunch almost every day and get 2-3 Starbucks coffees every day.
Is it lifestyle creep or inflation that's causing the spikes in costs? Look at three of the largest expenditures we face, their costs are skyrocketing...
Quote:
As Table 5 indicates, the actual price of the median house has increased by 150%, from $79,100 to $197,600 over the past two decades. The last column indicates that this was 56% faster than the
overall rate of inflation.
This means that the equivalent down-payment and mortgage payments for a house have gone up at a rate faster than the increase in family incomes for many families.
As many have noted, the price of health care expenditures paid by families, including both premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenditures has soared over the past two decades. We estimate this has gone from $1,200/year to $5,100/year, a 325% increase in price. This is 155% more than the overall rate of inflation and far above the rate of increase in incomes.
Finally, the price of college has also gone up rapidly. Tuition, fees, and room and board at four-year public colleges have increased 60% faster than the overall rate of inflation over this time period, while they have increased 43% faster at four-year private schools.
I hope to keep it as long as possible... the one aggravation is having to take a 30 year old vehicle in for treadmill smog checks... actually required going back 40 years.
Last time I brought in my 1976 Triumph the smog tech had never seen dual Zenith Stromberg carburetors and really did not have a clue...
The middle class needs to be resourceful... simply because resources are limited...
Is it lifestyle creep or inflation that's causing the spikes in costs? Look at three of the largest expenditures we face, their costs are skyrocketing...
The price of the median home has gone up a lot, but the size of the median home has doubled as well, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. For college I would be interested to see the cost of tuition vs tuition and room and board, so how fast has tuition alone increased and college is only a major expense for 4 years and only for about 60% of people. Health care there really isn't anything I can say that has outpaced inflation drastically, which is why people should focus on their health and take advantage of Lower cost plans and HSAs.
And holy cow on that articles assumptions on 2 cars @ 25k miles/yr/car. Where do they go? We put on about 20k miles/yr on 2 cars (7 and 13).
Last edited by mizzourah2006; 12-21-2015 at 04:28 PM..
Lets take something incredibly complex, the entire economy of a country with over 300 million people and boil it down to 'they deserved it'.
Good God.
ya think? I'll never forget when Bill Clinton was president and Hillary was trying to push through Hillarycare.
I walked in for morning report and the nurses were really *****!!! They were talking about what Hillary said about nurses. Someone cut out the article from the newspaper and put on the bulletin board. It quoted Hillary who said that nurses were under educated and over paid. I read the article and wasn't too happy about it either.
After that her dad became ill and she had a whole hospital wing of nurses to take care of him.
Last edited by petch751; 12-21-2015 at 06:44 PM..
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Money just opens up more options.
