Reply to A massive income required to live the idealized american dream around here?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "A massive income required to live the idealized american dream around here?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have ask that on 300k income. Most of the population does not have even half that income. Most of them didn't go to college.  Most don't have employre matched retirement plans (or any retirement). Most don't have savings accounts or investments. Most don't have Healthcare.  It's real have and have not.  Very sad reality and so far from the American dream[/quote]

My family makes over 300K and we got on the property ladder over a decade ago. To this day I still feel crushed at times by childcare expenses (even just basic county summer camps for a couple kids can run $800+/week). We have retirement and college to save for, plus an elderly parent who needs some help. And there is always an unexpected $$$ home or car expense popping up. Kid activities are expensive too. $180/month for no frill strip mall martial arts. $250 spring rec sport registration. I end up browsing marketplace or Buy Nothing for used sports gear and winter gear. Doing a basic summer vacation like driving to the beach for a week feels like a big expense, forget flying us all overseas.

And my takeaway from this isn’t woe is me. I realize I’m fortunate to have the things like employer retirement match, health insurance, and enough wiggle room in the budget for some mid week takeout.

Instead I’m left thinking, holy crap if my family has to carefully budget to afford these things on 325k, and we are noticing the pinch of grocery prices etc. going up, then … how the hell are middle class families doing life right now? Like I would think at a *top 10%* income I could easily buy my family plane tickets to see out of state family or replace a broken kitchen appliance. Yet these are big purchases for us.

What are families making $150k doing right now? And that used to be a good family income not that long ago! (Certainly during my lifetime). [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics