I'm sure that's the case with this inflation. My parents were well above middle class and my husband's parents were very middle class. Neither one ever had debt, but it was easier back then. Heck, it was easier 20 years ago. I can't believe how much money I spend every month on cell phones, internet, cable, etc.
I have to change my answer. I just got a promotion today and I now make just above lower-middle class for California.
True, but I don't think criminals are necessarily going to reason that. Chances are good that if I make $200,000 plus, I'm going to have some of that in liquid assets in the bank or in property around the estate.
Your risk on an anonymous message board is pretty much zero.
Not remotely anonymous, it's pretty easy to find people from details posted here. For example, someone might list their state on their profile, maybe even birthday. Answering a couple Spinneret Community Board questions and you can narrow down pretty quickly what area of the state to even what city someone lives. All I'm saying is it's better to be cautious and not put more information out there than you need to, especially regarding financial information.
). homes were less expensive yes but wages were lower as well and those interest rates were a killer.
Yup....equally thrilled to get our 9% mortgage back in the day.inflation definitely plays a part but i think we need to remember that on the one hand there are expenses most people now consider 'basics'/'necessities' that were not necessarily the norm in the average 'middle class' budget 20 years ago-cell phones (only about 50% of the public had them and definitely not all family members extending down to kids, yup it's somewhat of a trade off for loss of landline expense but much more expensive month to month). internet in one's private home was still pretty rare with only about 20% of u.s. homes buying in, and yeah cable was popular but it was still only used by about 60% of the population and more often than not it was the more basic level programming packages vs. what it seems most folks speak to having today.
so on the one hand you've got a budget that likely benefited from some fewer/lower expenses BUT anyone who owned a home 20 years ago and was paying a mortgage on it was likely paying at or (more likely) WELL ABOVE what people are complaining about being horrific interest rates today-the lowest interest rate during the 30 year period leading up to 2003 was IN 2003 during a couple of months when it got down to the high to mid 5's but it was generally higher, peaking at over 14.6% in 1984. starting in 1971 rates were around 7.3% and kept rising up to a peak of 18.3% in 1981 (we were THRILLED in the 90's to get a 'great' interest rate on our first home of over 10%
i guess what i'm trying to say is-there have been financial challenges across the decades and what might appear to have been easier times years ago had their own obstacles.
=stove/oven).
This is not how tax brackets work. Sometimes weird stuff happens with tax withholdings but that is trued up when you file (you just get a bigger refund).
You still need a name and/or email. Without that the information is pretty meaningless.
Also, as a reflection of the economy, it could be a false indicator. If 90% of the people packed into the Disney parks are going to put it on the credit card while still paying last year's Disney trip while struggling to pay the house payment or rent, just the fact that the parks are packed is not an indication that the economy is good.
How about if you didn't already have your home? Comparing today's rent with your mortgage you acquired 15 years ago isn't a good comparison.
How would you remove the income factor? By what people have? What people have is based on what they spend. What they spend is not an indication of what their income is, but income is an indication on what we can afford to have.
It is another assumption that parks are crowded with just return visitors and population being static?! - much less this idea of 90% of the people packed into Disney hitting their credit cards without paying a previous year's trip - while this may be true for some cohort of park visitors - I don't fundamentally see where this moves the needle much.
That’s from 2019. Most net worth growth over the last couple of years has come from real estate. And medians are still around $100k, which isn’t enough to retire if you follow the 25x expense rule.
