Middle class professionals: tell me about your finances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 42 and 43, HHI $340K with about that much in retirement. Kids in public school so childcare costs are fairly low compared to a few years ago.

And you also are not middle class.

[Anonymous]

Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 48 & 53 and make a combined 120k, which is poor here on DCUM. But I consider ourselves middle class - even upper middle class. DH started working at 18 full time and the best advice his older brother game him was to put the max possible into his 401K, which was easy since he was living at home and didn't really have any expenses. Fast forward and he's got $750K in his 401K. DH went to college part time - took him over 10 years to get his degree, and every class was paid for by his employer. He has worked in the IT field and has been in a "professional" position since he got his degree. I worked for the fed govt for 14 years, was a stay at home mom for 9 and now work very part time. I have $350K in my 401K - again maxing it out while I was with the govt and haven't contributed a dime since I left the workforce. We have managed to save $37,000 in 529's for our three children. Thanks to a wealthy aunt, the kids also have 529s that are funded enough for in-state tuition. We never had any student loans and we won't let our children take out student loans.

DH and I bought a modest home when we first got married - paid $200,000 in 1998 and its now worth $600,000 so we have significant equity. We keep our cars forever. We currently have a car payment - DH drives a 5 year old car and I just traded in our 12 year old minivan. DH will most likely not get a new car until a couple of years after my SUV is paid off. We don't take a vacation every year and we only eat out once or twice a month. We do live almost paycheck to paycheck but I don't regret not returning to my former career. We are healthy, happy, have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs. No we aren't jetting off to Europe and the Caribbean every year, but we are in much better shape than a significant portion of the country.

Yes you are. What a blessing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

Agreed-and most of the rest of the country would shake its head at 175-200k even mentioned in the same sentence as “middle class”!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

That’s your definition. Obviously others disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

Agreed-and most of the rest of the country would shake its head at 175-200k even mentioned in the same sentence as “middle class”!

I'm the PP you're quoting -- even I view 175k-200k as the absolute max with all the caveats of we're in DC/it's expensive/whatever. Frankly true middle class IMO for a family of 4 is more like 90k or 120k or 145k. Of course all the people who constantly feel poor bc they "only" make 350k must chime in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

Agreed-and most of the rest of the country would shake its head at 175-200k even mentioned in the same sentence as “middle class”!

I'm the PP you're quoting -- even I view 175k-200k as the absolute max with all the caveats of we're in DC/it's expensive/whatever. Frankly true middle class IMO for a family of 4 is more like 90k or 120k or 145k. Of course all the people who constantly feel poor bc they "only" make 350k must chime in.

I’m with you, and sometimes I just want a realistic means of comparison, you know? I feel very privileged on my sub-100k income, but I know that I could stand to do a better job and I’m interested in the strategies others use. I’ve started to read the Reddit Personal Finance Board because I think it’s more realistic to how most people live (yes, cue the “don’t you want to be better than most people in this country?!?! argument ).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 48 & 53 and make a combined 120k, which is poor here on DCUM. But I consider ourselves middle class - even upper middle class. DH started working at 18 full time and the best advice his older brother game him was to put the max possible into his 401K, which was easy since he was living at home and didn't really have any expenses. Fast forward and he's got $750K in his 401K. DH went to college part time - took him over 10 years to get his degree, and every class was paid for by his employer. He has worked in the IT field and has been in a "professional" position since he got his degree. I worked for the fed govt for 14 years, was a stay at home mom for 9 and now work very part time. I have $350K in my 401K - again maxing it out while I was with the govt and haven't contributed a dime since I left the workforce. We have managed to save $37,000 in 529's for our three children. Thanks to a wealthy aunt, the kids also have 529s that are funded enough for in-state tuition. We never had any student loans and we won't let our children take out student loans.

DH and I bought a modest home when we first got married - paid $200,000 in 1998 and its now worth $600,000 so we have significant equity. We keep our cars forever. We currently have a car payment - DH drives a 5 year old car and I just traded in our 12 year old minivan. DH will most likely not get a new car until a couple of years after my SUV is paid off. We don't take a vacation every year and we only eat out once or twice a month. We do live almost paycheck to paycheck but I don't regret not returning to my former career. We are healthy, happy, have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs. No we aren't jetting off to Europe and the Caribbean every year, but we are in much better shape than a significant portion of the country.

You are not upper class...

[Anonymous]

How the hell are you people posting about the middle class. I'm a teacher who makes 66k and has credit card debt. You also probably despise me for not sending you a handwritten thank you note for the chocolate bar your kid got me for Christmas. Ugh

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the 300K posters. You know, I'm REAL sick of the people of DCUM weighing in on what is rich and what is poor. I like the real estate forum and the MD school forum so I get my ass torn apart about once a week for living in Silver Spring and sending my kids to the DCC. Constantly trashed about living among the poors and how said it is and how most of the schools are FARMS (they are not). So hell if I'm going to come over here to the money forum and get told i'm too rich to weigh in. Sorry. I'm weighing in.

And folks, guess what? If you are ten years younger than us and make 200K you are not in a different "class" than us. Stupid term anyway. You haven't hit peak earning years yet and we have. As we look to move up once you hit mid 40s it is harder unless you are on the c-suite track which neither of us are. So it's all relative. You can hold the judgment. Yes, we do just fine. But let's all admit the incomes around here are skewed and it's a pricey place to live. We are a one car family with a three bedroom home and the four of us share a bathroom. No, it's not sad, it's not poor, and i'd never say it was. Our house is lovely and we feel fortunate that we can save and I would never argue that we aren't doing just fine. But spare me the judgment on whether I can weigh in on a middle class. Fine, I'm upper middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM would people with HHIs in the 300-400k range need to chime in and bring about their 300k+ in retirement bc they "feel" so middle class. Can we have one thread here focused on ACTUAL middle class -- which to me means a max of 175k or 200k for a family of 4, less than that if you are single/single parent household.

Agreed-and most of the rest of the country would shake its head at 175-200k even mentioned in the same sentence as “middle class”!

I'm the PP you're quoting -- even I view 175k-200k as the absolute max with all the caveats of we're in DC/it's expensive/whatever. Frankly true middle class IMO for a family of 4 is more like 90k or 120k or 145k. Of course all the people who constantly feel poor bc they "only" make 350k must chime in.

No where on this thread did anyone making that much say they felt poor. You are projecting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are 42 and 43, HHI $340K with about that much in retirement. Kids in public school so childcare costs are fairly low compared to a few years ago.

And you also are not middle class.

The term middle class professionals the op used is misleading. Two professionals in this area likely make a HHI that puts them above the true middle class. Pllus people of all ages are chiming in. I would argue that the people who have over 700k in their retirement aren’t middle class but they choked in. Oh well!

[Anonymous]

OP, it sounds like you are doing pretty well.

For comparison, I am 50 now, with two teens approaching college.

I am a Fed, DH a teacher. A decade ago, when we were your age, our HHI was about $145,000, and were putting away 5% for retirement, plus getting the 5% federal match. Plus, we were putting away a few hundred each month for college for our children. At that point, our retirement account had about $200,000, and we had $50,000 total in college savings accounts.

Fast forward ten years. HHI is now about $180,000. We have continued to save at the same pace - 5% in the retirement account, plus 5% federal match, and now up to about $1,000 per month into college savings. Right now we have $600,000 in our retirement accounts, plus $220,000 in total college savings - enough to pay for in-state tuition for both our children for four years.

I think we are in pretty good shape - and you are ahead of where we were ten years ago. So congrats and keep it up!

Thank you for posting this! NP, we are about where you were a decade ago but slightly older, with two elementary school-aged kids. Given the incomes and savings on this board, I always feel like we are way behind. Your post is very reassuring.

[Anonymous]

We are 34/35. HHI just hit $200k. Family of 4.

$235k in combined retirement and we are each saving about 12% (plus company match of 5%) but not maxing out.

$12k and $8k in kids' college savings (ages 3 and 2). We put in $200 per kid per month plus any monetary gifts to them from family.

$75k in emergency/down payment savings (currently renting).

Have one more year of a $500/month car payment, then will have two cars paid off (7 years and 3 years old).

Our college/grad school costs were either paid for by family or we paid off the debt with gifts received from family in our 20s. We were very lucky.

Paying roughly $25k/year for child care after $30k last school year. Both kids will be in school in Fall 2019 so we'll just have before/aftercare/summer costs of roughly $17k combined.

I feel like we should be farther along by now, but we continue to work hard and hope it will work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of the 300K posters. You know, I'm REAL sick of the people of DCUM weighing in on what is rich and what is poor. I like the real estate forum and the MD school forum so I get my ass torn apart about once a week for living in Silver Spring and sending my kids to the DCC. Constantly trashed about living among the poors and how said it is and how most of the schools are FARMS (they are not). So hell if I'm going to come over here to the money forum and get told i'm too rich to weigh in. Sorry. I'm weighing in.

And folks, guess what? If you are ten years younger than us and make 200K you are not in a different "class" than us. Stupid term anyway. You haven't hit peak earning years yet and we have. As we look to move up once you hit mid 40s it is harder unless you are on the c-suite track which neither of us are. So it's all relative. You can hold the judgment. Yes, we do just fine. But let's all admit the incomes around here are skewed and it's a pricey place to live. We are a one car family with a three bedroom home and the four of us share a bathroom. No, it's not sad, it's not poor, and i'd never say it was. Our house is lovely and we feel fortunate that we can save and I would never argue that we aren't doing just fine. But spare me the judgment on whether I can weigh in on a middle class. Fine, I'm upper middle class.

Life sounds rough for you pp