31% of millionaires think they're middle class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize how out of touch this sounds to people who earn, say, 70k per year, because that’s how I grew up. But DH and I now make almost 250k together and I feel like we’re middle class. This is how:

After deductions for health care and retirement accounts, we take home $5000 together per payday, every two weeks.

We live in a small row house with three beds, two baths. Our mortgage is $3500/month. We save $1000 each month in 529s, our kids are approaching college, and we have less than 30k in each 529. (Two years ago, HHI was much lower so we were saving $500/month between them.) All our other expenses are super normal: utilities, gas, phone and internet, groceries, medical bills, orthodontia, therapy. We take one vacation a year, never overseas. Kids are in public schools. There’s nothing ostentatious in any of our spending, except maybe our insane grocery bills and our maxing out of 401ks. I actually don’t remember how we did it when we were only making 120k, except that we weren’t saving much for retirement and college.

This is the problem. “Other than” maxing out our 401(k)s and putting $1,000 a month in 529s…..That’s still your money, and is something wealthy people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We have a lower-middle class income, but millions in assets that we are not spending apart from funneling a portion into college costs.

So in my case, yes, I do consider myself middle class, because my total yearly expenditure never goes beyond what the middle class is spending.

lol.. your self imposed expenses does not make you middle class.

You are umc.

These people are nuts. “Because I choose to save a huge portion of my extremely high income, I’m not rich.”

[Anonymous]

"Millionaire" lol. A million dollars doesn't go very far in Falls Church, VA.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI (200k) puts us in the upper middle class bracket for the DMV. There are objective numbers that determine what a middle class income is and we fall into that. Now we just got to that income, but still, we’re upper MC.
We’re 50, own a 1600 square foot home in the outer suburbs with subpar schools, just replaced our 20 year old cars with small newer cars, have no college savings, owe $500k on the house. We go out to eat maybe twice a month, and don’t do anything else for entertainment. Kids are in rec sports. We did cheap international travel when traveling on points was still possible and error fares existed.
We had a lot of therapy bills for one child, so that’s where the money went. I don’t feel we are better off now than we were 4 years ago with $150k HHI.

[Anonymous]

1. What's your HHI and what do you consider yourself?
HHI about $200. Middle class, DMV.
2. Do you feel poor, comfortable or rich? Why?
Not poor. Not rich. Not comfortable. I feel like we have enough for a MC lifestyle. There are things like renovations and vacations that are out of my reach. If I could pay for those things and be able to pay for the four of us to travel more, I would feel more comfortable/rich.
3. What level would you need to achieve to feel "rich?" $10 million in investable assets and/or $400k a year.

[Anonymous]

How much and age matters.

Having $1M does NOT make you wealthy if you are 55-57, still have 2-3 kids to put thru college. That's 1M across everything(house, college savings, retirement, etc) That makes you UMC in reality. $100K+ per kid is likely targeting towards their college education. Times 3. That leaves you $700K for retirement. UMC

However, if you have $1M in net worth and are 30, then yes you are wealthy.

Also, if you live in NYC, Boston, SF, LA or Seattle, cost of living is very different than having the same in Montana or Nebraska.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the COL of your area. A good rule-of-thumb is that you need to earn twice the area median income to feel UMC. Same for housing. So, if median HHI in Fairfax County is $125k, you need $250k to feel UMC. If the median single family home is $700k, you need a $1.4 million home to feel UMC. Now, compare those numbers to rural America where the median HHI is $50k and the median home is $150k. In absolute terms, the NOVA family looks rich, but in relative terms they’re not. Same goes for retirement savings and everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the COL of your area. A good rule-of-thumb is that you need to earn twice the area median income to feel UMC. Same for housing. So, if median HHI in Fairfax County is $125k, you need $250k to feel UMC. If the median single family home is $700k, you need a $1.4 million home to feel UMC. Now, compare those numbers to rural America where the median HHI is $50k and the median home is $150k. In absolute terms, the NOVA family looks rich, but in relative terms they’re not. Same goes for retirement savings and everything else.

If you and your neighbors are rich, you're still rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We have a lower-middle class income, but millions in assets that we are not spending apart from funneling a portion into college costs.

So in my case, yes, I do consider myself middle class, because my total yearly expenditure never goes beyond what the middle class is spending.

lol.. your self imposed expenses does not make you middle class.

You are umc.

You know, I disagree. A middle class person also has expenses that might push them into a "poor" bracket, and they are self-imposed but truly necessary. Like higher rent in a safer area, more nutritious foods, car payments instead of the bus to save time, etc.

If that's "poor", what do you call people in an unsafe neighborhood with less nutritious foods who are stuck on the bus??
These people magically survive without all these "truly necessary" things??

Pure delusion. This is what leads to riots and revolution.

[Anonymous]

Whether you are UMC or poor doesn't depend on how much you spend. Ot depends on your income. People who are saving thousands of dollars a month but don't "feel rich" because they aren't buying new cars every year or whatever are out-of-touch idiots. We make $350K/year, gross. We are not MC just because our expenses seem modest to us or we live in a higher COL area. Having grown up *actual* MC, I have no sympathy for rich people who don't "feel" rich.

[Anonymous]

What people are missing is that you are "saving for retirement" then you are UMC. If retirement is Social Security and a reverse mortgage, that's regular middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are UMC or poor doesn't depend on how much you spend. Ot depends on your income. People who are saving thousands of dollars a month but don't "feel rich" because they aren't buying new cars every year or whatever are out-of-touch idiots. We make $350K/year, gross. We are not MC just because our expenses seem modest to us or we live in a higher COL area. Having grown up *actual* MC, I have no sympathy for rich people who don't "feel" rich.

It depends where the money goes. Money is imaginary. Consumption is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We have a lower-middle class income, but millions in assets that we are not spending apart from funneling a portion into college costs.

So in my case, yes, I do consider myself middle class, because my total yearly expenditure never goes beyond what the middle class is spending.

lol.. your self imposed expenses does not make you middle class.

You are umc.

You know, I disagree. A middle class person also has expenses that might push them into a "poor" bracket, and they are self-imposed but truly necessary. Like higher rent in a safer area, more nutritious foods, car payments instead of the bus to save time, etc.

If that's "poor", what do you call people in an unsafe neighborhood with less nutritious foods who are stuck on the bus??
These people magically survive without all these "truly necessary" things??

Pure delusion. This is what leads to riots and revolution.
[/quote
This. People sound so stupid when they say stuff like this. "Oh, I'm poor because I don't have money leftover after buying a SFH in a good neighborhood, and a car, and organic fruit."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See, it isn't only on DCUM.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/10/survey-31percent-of-millionaires-say-they-are-part-of-the-middle-class.html

A recent Ameriprise survey found that about 60% of milllionaires consider themselves "middle class." A quarter of households making $175k called themselves "very poor," "poor," or "getting by but things are tight." An Edelman Financial survey found that Americans said they'd need to earn $233,000 on average to feel financially secure and $483,000 to feel rich.

What about you?
1. What's your HHI and what do you consider yourself?
2. Do you feel poor, comfortable or rich? Why?
3. What level would you need to achieve to feel "rich?"

Millions of millionaires are only "millionaires" due to recent inflation.

[Anonymous]

1. Combined of about $400k. Bonus of about $200k this year. UMC

2. Comfortable, but not rich. The bonus is variable, some of it is equity, and I (70% of HHI) could be laid off at any time. Net worth of about $3.5M in our mid 40s, $1.8M 401k, $1.2M after tax, $500k home equity.

We have 3 kids, are paying for a nanny, and are “time poor”. That means we’re often buying time, ordering takeout, etc.

I often avoid taking toll roads, book flights out of inconvenient airports like BWI, book flights with layovers, etc. I’m buying 5 plane tickets every time we travel. Inflation has pushed prices on everything way up.

3. $8M?