Reply to S/o What do you think a middle class life style looks like?

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[quote=Anonymous]We are middle class. Two parents, one child. HHI of 140k, was closer to 100k until about 2 years ago, so that's been a big jump.

We own a home (tiny 2-bedroom) and one car. We tend to hold onto consumer goods until they are on their last legs -- TVs, phones, computers, furniture, cars, etc. Every extra year we can go with the existing one is money in the bank (except for cars -- there comes a time repair costs outweigh the value of holding onto it, we always walk this line).

Where we splurge: kid's activities and a handful of hobbies/interests that are really worth it to us. We go to a couple pro sporting events a year, I am a member at a local museum, DH owns a high quality road bike. These are things that make our lives feel rich and special, even though we live in a modest home and skimp in other ways. We also take one somewhat splurge vacation every two years, but I suspect even these seem frugal to most people -- a splurge for us would be spending about 3500 all in, though I am very good at using points and finding deals so it doesn't feel like a compromise.

Where we save: only having one kid (I did want two and sometimes this makes me sad, but it's worth it to know we won't be stretched too thin financially), we almost never eat out and when we do, it's frugal take out or a mid-price family restaurant. We spend next to nothing on clothes, home decor, and entertainment beyond what I outlined above. We use free resources like the library and freebo. We buy used or pick things up from neighborhood listerves or buy nothing groups. We walk a lot. We are handy and do a lot of our own home repairs. Most vacations are very inexpensive, by car, staying in inexpensive hotels or AirBnBs. We work hard not to throw money away on things -- I research purchases extensively, cost compare, and we are very thoughtful about asking ourselves "do we really need this? will we really use it?"

Savings: We are doing okay. We saved aggressively for retirement before buying a home or having a kid, and that has helped us as we've had to lower retirement contributions in order to pay for our downpayment and childcare. We've been slower to start up college savings but are on track now. It is a huge relief to know that we only have one child and can focus our financial efforts there and not have to worry about dividing it. It makes savings more simple. It also makes expenses a bit more predictable in terms of stuff like summer camp, activities, orthodontia, etc.

We don't live an extravagant life but we have pretty much everything we want. Sometimes a smaller, more basic, or less frequent version of it than a wealthier family would have, but we're really not going without much of anything that I can think of. I don't feel deprived.[/quote]

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