If you consider yourself Upper Middle Class (and you live in the DMV)...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you have a high net worth, you aren't rich. Earning high wages at a job doesn't make your rich- it only gives you the potential to be rich.

If losing your job means that you aren't "rich" anymore- you were never rich to begin with.

We can quibble about what "high" net worth means, to be sure.

So many people don’t understand this.


Most upper middle class people are delusional af.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you have a high net worth, you aren't rich. Earning high wages at a job doesn't make your rich- it only gives you the potential to be rich.

If losing your job means that you aren't "rich" anymore- you were never rich to begin with.

We can quibble about what "high" net worth means, to be sure.

So many people don’t understand this.


Most upper middle class people are delusional af.

DP. We are HENRYs: high earners, not rich yet

[Anonymous]

For purposes of SES, HENRYs are something above "middle class", though. I see why rich feels like the wrong word, but middle class is not correct above certain income levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you are rich. UMC is Middle class - $80-120K in this area. This is silly to pretend you are middle class on $200K or more income and that much in savings. Middle class generally don't have that kind of savings and live pay check to pay check. If you live in a million dollar house you are not UMC. If you earn what is posted here, you are not UMC.

PP: that was my point in my earlier post. Our income is high, but culturally we feel UMC. We have to work to support ourselves. I work until midnight many nights and DH and I both work for a portion of most weekends. Obviously many people with lower incomes also work this hard, and as I noted I'm aware of where our income falls in a distribution, but our lifestyle is basically the same as a family making $200k/year.

Yeah I find the difference between upper middle class and upper class to be mostly about the dependence on a high-paying job. There is a big difference between somebody who needs their big law job and somebody who can live on the interest of their investments. Maybe there should be something between middle class and upper middle class to describe us.

Perhaps we are UUMC.

MUC; Mid-upper class

[Anonymous]

I would consider us very upper-middle class

HHI: varies a huge amount year to year... this year 1.3M, other years it has been 400K
NW: not sure, 2-3M I would guess
3 kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Here is where a lot of people are coming from--we made $140-160K and lived in a townhouse we bought for $360K that was 1000 square feet. Then we sold it and got a modest SFH (still in our close-in suburb) for $600,000 that has appreciated to $1,000,000. And our incomes went from $160K to $300K. In 25 years our 401ks went from $0 to $1,000,000. When we made $160K we were paying off student loans and paying for child care. Now we are paying for braces and facing college for two kids. So, to you, we are rich because we have a net worth of $1.5M now and an income of $300,000, but we feel like the same people and live in the same house we have since we made half as much money and live basically the same lifestyle except we put a lot more in savings. We don't feel rich, we feel....middle class. Or upper middle class if you want.

In a similar boat, but I feel I live a normal middle class lifestyle while also being extremely fortunate and rich. It feels like some sort of life cheat code that my investment accounts just keep growing like crazy when I'm not doing anything special (yes, I'm saving a ton in them - but I'm not actually working harder than I was at age 25, nor am I living a pauper lifestyle in order to invest). Capitalism is so weird.

I do feel differently about money than I did when we made way less, because there is just so much more margin to absorb any problems or bumps. This goes from huge financial things like extended job loss, to an unexpected expensive bill, to simply just not caring what my grocery bill is. That is the biggest difference for me between when I was truly middle class / UMC and now.

But could you quit your job? There’s a difference between not stressing over a car repair bill and being rich. I get that lots of other people stress a lot more, but making $300k around here doesn’t even put us in sending the kids to private school territory, or flying first class.

I could, but I am not going to for a while yet. My husband saw our net worth hit $7 million and put in his retirement paperwork. We'll live on about $150,000 earned income.

[Anonymous]

41
$700 - $1M a year
About $15M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:41
$700 - $1M a year
About $15M

Are you kidding me? This is clearly wealthy. (I'm sorry, I can't stop myself.)

[Anonymous]

Age: 37
HHI: $550K
NW: approx. $2.5
Kids: 2

[Anonymous]

Age 34 and 33
HHI 215k with SAHM. Income was 115k just three years ago.
NW 750k
Kids 2

I don’t feel upper middle class on a daily basis. I don’t really own any luxury items and have tried to stay away from lifestyle creep. Now I’m putting 33% of my before tax pay into savings/investments.

[Anonymous]

Ages 35 and 37
HHI $2.3 mill but highly variable year over year
Net worth $4 mill

[Anonymous]

Mid 40s

HHI: $260k
NW: $800k ish
Family of 6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For purposes of SES, HENRYs are something above "middle class", though. I see why rich feels like the wrong word, but middle class is not correct above certain income levels.

Lol no they’re not.

[Anonymous]

Love these people making 500k+ a year and thinking they are anywhere in UMC salary ranges.

Delusional. We made 990K this year. We started making 500k per year about 7 years ago. At 600K, we owned a boat, built a custom home, and were able to save for college and our retirement.

At 800K, we bought a bigger boat (a 500K yacht) an old sports car, remodeled, and traveled several times a year.

And now at 990K, we have saved 175K for our child's college, invested a lot, and have huge emergency savings and retirement.

I have not been UMC in a long time and just because you people making this kind of money may not spend it like we do, doesn't change the fact that you are no more UMC than I am or was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love these people making 500k+ a year and thinking they are anywhere in UMC salary ranges.

Delusional. We made 990K this year. We started making 500k per year about 7 years ago. At 600K, we owned a boat, built a custom home, and were able to save for college and our retirement.

At 800K, we bought a bigger boat (a 500K yacht) an old sports car, remodeled, and traveled several times a year.

And now at 990K, we have saved 175K for our child's college, invested a lot, and have huge emergency savings and retirement.

I have not been UMC in a long time and just because you people making this kind of money may not spend it like we do, doesn't change the fact that you are no more UMC than I am or was.

Cannot find one single expert who agrees with your absurd claims for umc status. Way too high. Despite your dubious powers of logic, you are definitely umc in terms of income anyway. Pew has a calcultor that includes social aspects of class as well.



Here's a breakdown on income class for 2019 incomes for a family a three, according to Rose's analysis:

INCOME GROUP INCOME
Poor or near-poor $32,048 or less
Lower-middle class $32,048 - $53,413
Middle class $53,413 - $106,827
Upper-middle class $106,827 - $373,894
Rich $373,894 and up
[ READ: Fight Back: How to Combat Racial Wealth Inequality. ]



https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system


https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/14/how-many-americans-are-considered-upper-class.html

Middle class can mean different things to different people. You can think of middle class as a certain lifestyle, a state of mind, or a strict measurement of wealth. And how you define middle class determines who falls into it.

Using annual incomes and the cost of living around the country as barometers, the experts at the Pew Research Center have concluded that 52% of Americans qualify as middle class—but that portion can vary widely depending where you live.

According to a Pew study released last fall, the median income of middle-class American households is $74,015, based on Census data from 2016, the latest available. (Pew defines middle class as two-thirds to twice the U.S. median household income, adjusted for household size.)

As you can see in the map below, that benchmark income tops $84,000 in Rhode Island and Maryland and approaches $75,000 in Florida.

That roughly half of American households fall into the middle class is similar to what Pew found in 2011, the last time they did this analysis. But over time the middle class has been shrinking: In 1971, 61% of adults lived in middle-class households.

And during that time both upper and lower-income segments of the population have been growing at the expense of the middle class. Plus, the top group has seen bigger income gains, widening the income gap.