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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This sums up most of the threads in this subforum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Nope. These posters think they are middle class bevause they are living an entirely middle class lifestyle. They live in a middle classs style house, drive average cars and spend most of their money on fixed expenses such as housing and student loans. The only luxury they may have is living in a middle class style house closer to DC with a shorter commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Nope. These posters think they are middle class bevause they are living an entirely middle class lifestyle. They live in a middle classs style house, drive average cars and spend most of their money on fixed expenses such as housing and student loans. The only luxury they may have is living in a middle class style house closer to DC with a shorter commute.

That's the key part. If they lived where the true middle class lives and dealt with their 60-90 minute commute each way, they could have a bigger, nicer house, nice cars, vacations, etc., that no one would associate with being middle class. That they have the luxury of deciding to scale back to just "average" on all of these other areas to choose widely expensive by highly preferable housing doesn't make them middle class. The middle class doesn't have the luxury of that choice.

[Anonymous]

It is perplexing in Arlington. Anyone who has actually been to nice places anywhere else sees the prices and says huh? For what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah, you might be 1% nationally, but not locally.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/income-required-to-be-in-the-top-1-in-the-most-expensive-us-cities-2016-4
And once you look at Arlington, my guess is you're in the border or MC/UMC. I'd say HHI has to be $450-500k+ in Arlington to be UMC.

Pittsburgh is 9th most expensive city in US??

It has pockets of old wealth and areas of new tech money, but tons and tons of normal.

[Anonymous]

$350 HHI is not middle or upper middle class in North Arlington. It's lower middle class, bordering on poor. I know dozens of people living in Arlington and all of them make much more than this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$350 HHI is not middle or upper middle class in North Arlington. It's lower middle class, bordering on poor. I know dozens of people living in Arlington and all of them make much more than this.

Absolutely! I did a random survey of all of my friends in N. Arlington, and of the three who responded, the average HHI was $550K. Sad!

[Anonymous]

For Arlington, upper middle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It's by neighborhood not nationally

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You know that's illegal right..... you can't have side gigs as a government employee