Household income is $350k and live in Arlington. Are we middle or upper middle class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is close to that and I do feel middle class living in Arlington. Of course I understand that 350k is much more than the vast majority of Americans make, but it doesn't feel like that living here. We are paying off student loans, live in one of the few small, original homes in our neighborhood and drive modest used cars. I SAH but we don't take vacations except to visit family, don't buy fancy gadgets or clothes or whatever.

That's your splurge - your a SAHM in Arlington! Duh

+1 by far the biggest splurge.

[Anonymous]

There are people living paycheck to paycheck at all income levels

Quit trying to keep up with the jonses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is close to that and I do feel middle class living in Arlington. Of course I understand that 350k is much more than the vast majority of Americans make, but it doesn't feel like that living here. We are paying off student loans, live in one of the few small, original homes in our neighborhood and drive modest used cars. I SAH but we don't take vacations except to visit family, don't buy fancy gadgets or clothes or whatever.

You can feel however you like as long as you understand that you're a 1% household. As noted above, most billionaires feel poor compared to Jeff Bezos.

You have to make over 550k to be part of the one percent in dc. I assume it's less in Virginia.

Whether top 1% in the US or top 2% in DC...either way, that's not middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is close to that and I do feel middle class living in Arlington. Of course I understand that 350k is much more than the vast majority of Americans make, but it doesn't feel like that living here. We are paying off student loans, live in one of the few small, original homes in our neighborhood and drive modest used cars. I SAH but we don't take vacations except to visit family, don't buy fancy gadgets or clothes or whatever.

You should try doing the exact same thing except with working parents and the daycare shuffle. Unless your your DH routinely works 80 hr weeks, your household labor is less than a dual working parents, and have half the commute, for the same money. I mean, you don't work, how is that not upper class life?

There are plenty of people who don't work and it doesn't mean they are wealthy or poor.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_independence

"Financial independence is the state of having sufficient personal wealth to live, without having to work actively for basic necessities."

Her husband works. They aren't financially independent.

Being FI doesn't mean you don't work; it simply means you don't *have* to due to passive income exceeding expenses. Since most people on this forum spend more than they earn no matter how much they make, I'll guess they aren't FI. But the fact that they work doesn't necessarily mean they aren't FI. I did the math the other day and we're technically FI despite making only about 1/3rd of the 1%ers above, because we paid off our house early and make enough in investments to pay our property taxes, utilities, and food if we cut our expenses to the bone. However, we continue working because a.) we want more kids and health insurance is expensive, b.) we get to give lots more to charity this way, and c.) we'd like to fully fund our kids' colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is close to that and I do feel middle class living in Arlington. Of course I understand that 350k is much more than the vast majority of Americans make, but it doesn't feel like that living here. We are paying off student loans, live in one of the few small, original homes in our neighborhood and drive modest used cars. I SAH but we don't take vacations except to visit family, don't buy fancy gadgets or clothes or whatever.

You should try doing the exact same thing except with working parents and the daycare shuffle. Unless your your DH routinely works 80 hr weeks, your household labor is less than a dual working parents, and have half the commute, for the same money. I mean, you don't work, how is that not upper class life?

There are plenty of people who don't work and it doesn't mean they are wealthy or poor.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_independence

"Financial independence is the state of having sufficient personal wealth to live, without having to work actively for basic necessities."

Her husband works. They aren't financially independent.

Being FI doesn't mean you don't work; it simply means you don't *have* to due to passive income exceeding expenses. Since most people on this forum spend more than they earn no matter how much they make, I'll guess they aren't FI. But the fact that they work doesn't necessarily mean they aren't FI. I did the math the other day and we're technically FI despite making only about 1/3rd of the 1%ers above, because we paid off our house early and make enough in investments to pay our property taxes, utilities, and food if we cut our expenses to the bone. However, we continue working because a.) we want more kids and health insurance is expensive, b.) we get to give lots more to charity this way, and c.) we'd like to fully fund our kids' colleges.

Breadwinner DH: the ultimate passive income.

[Anonymous]

Technically you are at the threshold of upper class but living upper class has more to do with how much free cash flow you have. If you have a big mortgage and big education expenses you might not have a lot of free cash flow to feel like you are upper class. If you don't have a mortgage and don't have any education expenses it's party time if you are making $350,000. One year I had two kids in college and one in medical school and spent over $100,000. A couple of years later it was down to $0. I felt like I had gotten a massive raise!

[Anonymous]

upper middle class.

[Anonymous]

Nothing "middle" about it, unless you're using a definition of middle class that stretches up to the top 1% of income to avoid having to acknowledge the fact that you make more than 99% of the country. Such a definition is simply cowardly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing "middle" about it, unless you're using a definition of middle class that stretches up to the top 1% of income to avoid having to acknowledge the fact that you make more than 99% of the country. Such a definition is simply cowardly.

Someone making $55k and living in Dominican Republic would be upper class. Locality matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing "middle" about it, unless you're using a definition of middle class that stretches up to the top 1% of income to avoid having to acknowledge the fact that you make more than 99% of the country. Such a definition is simply cowardly.

Someone making $55k and living in Dominican Republic would be upper class. Locality matters.

This discussion, however, involves the United States, where a HHI of 350k places you well within the top 2% http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/income-rank/index.html So again, you aren't middle class in the US with 350k, as you make more than 98% of the country (http://www.businessinsider.com/top-one-percent-every-us-state-2016-11/). The fact that you could find a street somewhere in DC where everyone makes 10M+ would not make a 350k HHI middle class.

[Anonymous]

I don't know. There's an obnoxious Lyon Village poster who posts fairly regularly about their $500K HHI so I guess you're both obnoxious, except you're middle class as well.

[Anonymous]

This is definitely that DCUM peculiarity (i.e., greed) that leads people to believe that knowing anyone who makes more than them automatically makes them middle class. Unfortunately, that's not how a reality-based world works. Oprah doesn't become middle class when she steps into an elevator with Bill Gates, and your 300/500/700k HHI doesn't become middle class (or the pseudo-humble "upper" middle class) simply because you aren't the richest person in your neighborhood. You're just being greedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our income is close to that and I do feel middle class living in Arlington. Of course I understand that 350k is much more than the vast majority of Americans make, but it doesn't feel like that living here. We are paying off student loans, live in one of the few small, original homes in our neighborhood and drive modest used cars. I SAH but we don't take vacations except to visit family, don't buy fancy gadgets or clothes or whatever.

JFC. Just f*cking listen to yourself for a second.

[Anonymous]

If you are making $350k, it is unlikely that you are working a middle class type job. You are likely a business owner, or working professional, or a dual income familiy working professional type jobs.

Class and income may overlap to some degree, but social class is not the same as income class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in Arlington and make $550k.

There are rich and richer in our neighborhood. We are average income in our neighborhood. Some make much less, but bought early when houses were half what they are worth now or had family help with house purchase.

What do people do for a living? Double lawyers? Lobbyists?

GS-15 and an independent software consultant.