Reply to How do I know if I am middle class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with the posters who are suggesting that it's necessary to evaluate SES (which is what I think the OP was referring to - not her ability to know which silver to use at dinner or whether there are cars on blocks in her yard) by at least partially factoring in geography. This is a very expensive area. I moved here from a college town in the Midwest and when we were first looking to buy a house, I was more or less traumatized by the prices. A quarter of a million dollars for a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom house in a further out PG county suburb? At least $1000 in rent for a studio apartment on 16th Street? I was coming from a town where making $23,000 a year working in an office while going to school full time was perfectly fine, because my rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood was around $700/month.

I am in my early 30s, college educated and working as a legal secretary at a medium sized firm downtown. My father is a tenured professor at a state school in the Midwest. He has a master's degree and a PhD in his field, as well as tenure, since he's been working at the same place since the late 80s. My salary is about $3k a year less than his. If I was making the same salary at home, I would be considered upper middle class. It would be enough to rent a large house with a yard in a good school district. In DC, what I make is enough that I can afford for my daughter to have her own bedroom, but only living in the semi-transitional neighborhood I live in. We could move into a larger apartment if we lived further out in the suburbs, which would likely also improve school choice, but I would never see her. Here, I do not consider myself to be upper middle class at all. The only reason I consider myself to be in the range of middle class is that last time I checked, I made too much money to qualify for public assistance.

I have no idea how people manage to support a family of 4 in this area on $60,000 a year. When I hear people complaining about how they're middle class because they don't have a lot of money due to needing to max out their 401K or renovate their kitchen, I feel a bit ill. When I hear people posting that if you do not have at least a year's salary saved in an emergency account and a life insurance policy, you're an irresponsible adult, I feel a bit ill. If I lost my job tomorrow, I would have about 2 weeks to find another one before I started having to borrow money from my family, which is not an option available to everyone.

Please remember when you're complaining about your $500k HHI and how much you have had to work to get there that there are people who make less than 10% of your salary who have worked just as hard. Please also consider that your lawyer's salary likely affords things like health insurance and ability to save for retirement, which is not something that your average retail or childcare job provides. [/quote]

It’s tough being downwardly mobile. [/quote]

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