S/O What is middle class?

[havaneselover]

According to that calculator site it states that the average upper class salary is anything over $125K.

Upper class here in south Florida for a family of 4 begins at $151K.

I have two brothers in the "upper class." If that's the upper class, it's not that glamorous

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

It says that I am upper class, but I will tell you that is not how I feel. If anything, I would argue that we are maybe upper middle class at best. We are also just at the start of building our family, so when you put us as a family of 4, rather than 2, we fall into the middle class. Right now a lot of our take-home pay has been going towards accelerating our debts and increasing our savings. We make a good combined salary, but we are putting a lot of money each month toward extra payments on our mortgage and car loans, plus lots of money going towards savings each month like our emergency fund, baby expenses and retirement savings. This is easier I guess because it is just the two of us right now, but baby will be here in October and the ultimate goal will be 2 kids.

DH and I are currently working out how we will find enough money in our budget to pay for child care next year. And we just talked this morning about where we might find money to put away towards college savings too, though that might be hard for the first few years of baby's life. We don't live any kind of lavish life style. We do have a nice home, but it was a pretty modest price compared to homes in many areas of the country (and Michigan had a very down market in 2012 when I purchased). We rarely eat out. We vacation once per year for a week and nothing extravagant. We don't spend much on gadgets or hobbies. I guess we are more focused on building wealth now so we worry less later, but that means we are living a very middle class lifestyle even if Pew thinks we are upper class.

I agree with @havaneselover about wealth playing a part which the tool doesn't take into account. If someone has a big inheritance or trust fund, that would make a big difference in wealth that isn't necessarily translated into salary. Salary isn't everything and how you use your salary will have a big impact on the lifestyle that you lead. You can make a lot of money, but spend it all and not build any wealth. If you have ever read, "The Millionaire Next Door," you know that a large percentage of those with substantial wealth are people with middle and upper middle class salaries, but frugal spending habits. They have modest homes, drive nice but not luxury cars (often times used), maintain a regular family budget and save 20+ percent of their annual income. That is the model we have been trying to emulate. By living far below our means, I believe we will be able to fulfill our greatest desires, including funding college for our kids and having a comfortable retirement.

 

[Bree]

I have two brothers in the "upper class." If that's the upper class, it's not that glamorous

We are considered upper class and i sure don't feel like it LOL!!! We live in a modest home and drive Fords. My neighbors drive luxury cars and I don't mean BMW. We're talking Maserati and Bentley.

 

[Tattylou]

Says we are middle class. Sounds about right to me. Before we had our 2 kids, I'm sure it would've said upper class bc there was only 2 of us and I worked full time. Now I work 3 days/wk with a flexible schedule and my parent help watch the kids. It was more economical than paying FT day care and my parents weren't up for FT childcare.

 

[QueenIsabella]

It says that I am upper class, but I will tell you that is not how I feel. If anything, I would argue that we are maybe upper middle class at best. We are also just at the start of building our family, so when you put us as a family of 4, rather than 2, we fall into the middle class. Right now a lot of our take-home pay has been going towards accelerating our debts and increasing our savings. We make a good combined salary, but we are putting a lot of money each month toward extra payments on our mortgage and car loans, plus lots of money going towards savings each month like our emergency fund, baby expenses and retirement savings. This is easier I guess because it is just the two of us right now, but baby will be here in October and the ultimate goal will be 2 kids.

DH and I are currently working out how we will find enough money in our budget to pay for child care next year. And we just talked this morning about where we might find money to put away towards college savings too, though that might be hard for the first few years of baby's life. We don't live any kind of lavish life style. We do have a nice home, but it was a pretty modest price compared to homes in many areas of the country (and Michigan had a very down market in 2012 when I purchased). We rarely eat out. We vacation once per year for a week and nothing extravagant. We don't spend much on gadgets or hobbies. I guess we are more focused on building wealth now so we worry less later, but that means we are living a very middle class lifestyle even if Pew thinks we are upper class.

I agree with @havaneselover about wealth playing a part which the tool doesn't take into account. If someone has a big inheritance or trust fund, that would make a big difference in wealth that isn't necessarily translated into salary. Salary isn't everything and how you use your salary will have a big impact on the lifestyle that you lead. You can make a lot of money, but spend it all and not build any wealth. If you have ever read, "The Millionaire Next Door," you know that a large percentage of those with substantial wealth are people with middle and upper middle class salaries, but frugal spending habits. They have modest homes, drive nice but not luxury cars (often times used), maintain a regular family budget and save 20+ percent of their annual income. That is the model we have been trying to emulate. By living far below our means, I believe we will be able to fulfill our greatest desires, including funding college for our kids and having a comfortable retirement.

The upper class thing can be thrown off by being a married couple with two incomes and no kids. DH and I used to be like that--on paper, we looked like we were living the life of Reilly. In reality, not so much! On the good side, now, 25 years later, we have 4 kids and 1 income and are still solidly middle class. And we have college expenses under control, and a good amount in retirement savings. OTOH, like you, we're not very "exciting", in that we've never spent lavishly on vacations, meals out, and so forth.

 

[dclpluto]

We are considered upper class and i sure don't feel like it LOL!!! We live in a modest home and drive Fords. My neighbors drive luxury cars and I don't mean BMW. We're talking Maserati and Bentley.

Nothing wrong with a ford.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

You need to make $170,000 to be considered upper class with a family of 4 in my area. In 2015 and earlier we were considered upper class. I quit my job, decided to stay home with the kids more and DH made drastically less (including being laid off at one point). We're on the up and up now but it will take YEARS before we're considered upper class once again.

 

[ktate82]

Why isn't it divided by thirds? Bottom 33%, lower class, Next 33%, middle class, Top 33% upper class?

I believe it is more like a bell curve than evenly split. So you have the 60% in the middle, with the 20% on each end. And in that 20% at each end, you have the even smaller extremes (just for a numbers sake, say 5% of uber rich, and 5% of severe poverty).

 

[Bree]

Nothing wrong with a ford.

Nope! I love my Ford Edge! DH has an explorer right now, but is dying to go back to a F-150 when we move to central FL.

 

[tvguy]

Nothing wrong with a ford.

A car survey about 10 years ago found that the most popular car with people with a net worth of $1 million or more was the Ford Taurus.
However, the flip side is, if you are over age 50, have a middle class income, have a house, and a retirement plan, you SHOULD be worth AT LEAST $1 million. A million isn't what it used to be.

 

[MillauFr]

A car survey about 10 years ago found that the most popular car with people with a net worth of $1 million or more was the Ford Taurus.
However, the flip side is, if you are over age 50, have a middle class income, have a house, and a retirement plan, you SHOULD be worth AT LEAST $1 million. A million isn't what it used to be.

If you own a house in many places in California your net worth is at least a million. That is my diversification problem. My house is 60% of my net worth.

 

[MillauFr]

We are considered upper class and i sure don't feel like it LOL!!! We live in a modest home and drive Fords. My neighbors drive luxury cars and I don't mean BMW. We're talking Maserati and Bentley.

I think the car thing depends on where you live. I see many people driving the fancy cars in Orange County when we go to Disneyland. Here is Seattle you rarely see them. Income level is about the same in both places but they are very different culturally.

 

[tvguy]

If you own a house in many places in California your net worth is at least a million. That is my diversification problem. My house is 60% of my net worth.

Having 60% of your net worth in your house isn't necessarily an issue. When my mom passed away nearly 4 years ago at age 90, about 80% of her net worth was her house. Her budget for EVERYTHING was $700. Her Social Security check of $1,250 easily covered that. Her pension of $400 and investment income of $170 was mad money. Her issue was, her cash income was jeopardizing her Social Security.

 

[Princess Minnie321]

We also came up as upper class and we live in a high cost of living area and have two kids. My DH's salary has doubled over the past 3 years which is a major contributor to the money we have.

We could afford fancy vacations, brand new cars, and a much bigger house, but we want to live under our means and save. We are maxing out our retirement and we put money into our kids' custodial accounts monthly. We live off DH's paycheck and bank mine. Our house needs to be remodeled and we want to pay for as much as possible in cash. We have also paid off all our debt except my car and our mortage.

 

[ellie05]

According to the survey we are in the upper income tier along with 19% of people in our area. We are a one income family I think it is pretty accurate. I think we do see how much more things we can do and save for than our peers.

 

[kathy884]

This says we are in the upper class along with 25% of the people in our area. Middle class though is what everyone I know considers themselves. If we need to work to pay the bills and work till retirement age to insure a secure retirement, don't live off of our investments, aren't buying second homes, aren't traveling to exotic vacation destinations annually, have a nice but modest home, have nice but modest cars, etc. I think the classification would be more upper middle class vs. upper class. // I'm happy with what we have, am happy we can do what we can do, that we can take some nice vacations, that we can give to charities, that we can save for retirement, that we can help out our kid, that we don't live paycheck to paycheck, and feel fortunate. But upper class??

 

[Bree]

I think the car thing depends on where you live. I see many people driving the fancy cars in Orange County when we go to Disneyland. Here is Seattle you rarely see them. Income level is about the same in both places but they are very different culturally.

I in South Florida. It's definitely the culture down here and there are a lot of people with a lot of money, but there is also this need to portray an image of having money too. I drive by houses which are crumbling apart - holes in the stucco, sagging roof, etc, but they have a brand new BMW 7 series parked in the yard.

 

[georgina]

I live in a low cost area (Pittsburgh) and it came back as upper class for a household size of 2 with a 120,000 income.

The demographic (age in 50's, married, college degree, white) said over 50% of people in my group are upper income.

With all our kids out of the house, no debt, and decent retirement savings, I do feel like we fit in the upper income group. We dont have a second home either, and live in our first house still, drive Subarus, but are comfortable. Everyone's definition is different.

 

[runwad]

Middle. We have a family of 5 and to be Upper you have to get to an income of $150,000. I think that sounds right for my area.

 

[superme80]

Just as expected. We are lower income.