Reply to Why a 300-400k salary doesn't feel rich

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]300K is rich in the sense that at that level you can [b]reasonably pay a mortgage, save for retirement, save for college, pay for daycare, and go on decent vacations[/b]. You are building wealth and buying your kids some breathing space, which is more than the vast majority of Americans can do. [/quote]

It’s kind of crazy that these things are now for the “rich.” I feel like owning a home and being able to save and occasionally take a vacation or 2 should be a very middle class thing that everyone can do. It’s weird to me that with all the resources we have and technology that makes life better, we haven’t figured out a way to improve human life more. Like unless you’re born to rich parents you have to take out massive loans to get an education and may never make it on the property ladder.[/quote]

No, no, no. Please stop it. It’s not just for the “rich”. Many middle class Americans own homes, send kids to college and occasionally go on vacation.
They own average homes, have modest vacations and send kids to average colleges.

It was never, never and never a time when the middle class could afford to live in the best neighborhood in town, send kids to the best schools in town, and go to the best vacation spots. This was always reversed to the “rich”.

The median home price in the DC area is now about 550k. Higher than it used to be, but a middle class family can manage to afford it.
It won’t allow you to buy a SFH in NW DC or Arlington. It won’t allow you to send your kids to a 10/10 school. But that’s not what middle class means in the first place. That’s for the upper class.

It won’t allow tou to save for college enough to afford private ivy league colleges. But that’s not for the middle class. That’s for the rich elite.
The middle class sends kids to community colleges or public in-state colleges.

[/quote]

this is a very boomer way of thinking. I grew up in a very wealthy area back in the 90s, the type of lifestyle you could achieve 30 years versus now is night and day. My extra curicular used to consist of just playing pick up basket ball games at the local park. Now every kid in the same neighborhood has 2-3 sports/coaches + piano/art/russian math and maybe 1/3 go to private school. The amount it takes to raise a child that is competitive in today's market has gone up at a minimum 5-10x fold. While real estate affordability has gone up 3-4x fold. The same type of house my parents generation could afford based on a 130k HHI income in the 90s is completely unattainable based on 300-400k HHI today. we are talking about a 4-5x increase in home prices for the exact same homes.

The middle has fallen apart, and the UMC/LUC(lower upper class) is engaged in a crazy arms race of their kids to get into the few ivy/big tech/big law/med school slots. [/quote]

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