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Huh... I was never middle class. I sort of feel like an ass, lying all these years
I thought middle class was $60K to $120K for "medium cost" of living. Not the pricy cities, but not the cheap, rural areas. Average rent being about $1000 a month.
You can save enough money to grow a good savings account, but still have enough to eat out every now and then, for modest expenses (e.g. a new ipad every 4 years), a few video games on Steam, Netflix subscription, gym memberships, etc.
Eating out, expensive good, but vacations EVERY YEAR AREN'T A REQUIREMENT to be middle class.
I grew up middle class with a father at a fortune top 5 company, and our vacations were camping and visiting grandma in anotger state and the weekend type trips. Or Disney World once every 5 years at grandma's Florida home during Easter, nothing like Hawai'i or Europe every year.
Different families have diffeent discretionary spending priorities. We stick with the paid off house and only do one car payment at the time so we can do significant vacations every year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JOinGA
The definition and expectations of middle class have changed...at least in some areas of the country. I recently sold a house in Georgia and, in looking for comp prices, I realized that there were very few houses in the area that are as small as those in my neighborhood. At 1800 square feet, I knew my house was not big, but I never thought of it as particularly small. I grew up in New Jersey in a much smaller home (and we had 4 kids!). So did almost everyone I knew. But, when my Georgia house was on the market, much of the feedback was "too small!" Still sold within 3 days, though, to a smart young couple who were buying well below the amount pre-approved for them by the bank.
The 1600-2000sf 3/2/2 single family homes are all over my town. The ones in good structural condition generally sell in less than a week even if they have the original 1982 kitchen- price is usually in the $250-$300K range, which is affordable on typical local salaries, gets you zoned for one of the best comprehensive high schools in Florida and puts you an easy drive to all the beaches and fun stuff in Destin.
If you can make the job situation work, you can often find great value in smaller metro areas.
$300,000/yr is rich even in many expensive cities like Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc.
I live in the LA metro area, and have to disagree with this. I suppose a single person would be pretty well off with that income, but a couple raising a family will be comfortable on $300K in most of LA, but nowhere near rich.
Bought a house, put money aside for college & retirement, and had young children on ~$115k in Marin County, California. Yes, it's possible to live comfortably on less than $300k in the Bay Area.
When did you buy your house? Would you sell it to me for what you paid for it? If so, I can live comfortably in the Bay Area on less than $300K.
I haven't seen anyone making much less buying houses in the Santa Clara Valley over the last year or so....you have to make about that much to get the mortgage.
Seems high, I would say $200,000/yr would do it, anything lower than $200,000/yr and it would not be optimal in terms of raising kids, living in a good area with good schools, saving for retirement and taking the family on a vacation or two a year.
That would be upper middle class, I'd say. There is also middle middle class, and lower middle class.
The average middle class family in America takes in about $54,000 income. THAT is middle class.
It seems to me that the wealthy don't have a grip on what is normal, middle class income in the country. They seem to think that they are middle class, failing to recognize that they are wealthy...when compared to everyone else in the country. It's no wonder they don't understand others not being able to work one's way through college, pay for health insurance if not employer-provided, and the like. They view those people as low producers who are too lazy to work hard enough to have an income like theirs.
It may take $300k to live a certain lifestyle in the country. But let's not pretend that that is middle class in America. Even in NY, that is doing pretty well. If you can save for retirement (someone earning $300k is gonna want a LOT of money for retirement), go on two vacations a year, live near "good schools," have nice cars, a nice house, etc.....then you're a little higher than middle middle class.
It’s not that far off guys.... $300k/yr in many markets isn’t really that much considering COL.
I know it sounds tone def but many of the people OTF don’t have a comprehensive of true costs.
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