Reply to Why do so many affluent people insist they have "middle class" values?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We earn combined (2 working spouses), 270K.  Earlier this year, our combined salaries equaled less than 200K, so we just got a big jump.  To earn that 270K, we both had to take out significant student loans, even though both us attended public schools.  If I quit working tomorrow, we would be forced to sell our house (because we couldn't afford the mortgage) within 6 months at the absolute longest. We have no job security, and can be fired at will.  Prior to graduate school, I earned 30K a year.

When you take out loans and mortgage, plus the cost of child care for young children, there is simply not all that much left. We do not have household help or a yard guy, we cannot afford to take a family trip by plane etc.  I am not bemoaning our fate.  I'm happy with our income. If we can hold on to this income level (far from guarunteed) and our kids get scholarships to college, I hope we will someday be wealthy, or at least be able to retire by the time we are in our 70s. 
But pretty sure if I started telling people who know us that we are rich right now, they would laugh.  Growing up, people we knew who we thought of as rich, did not have to work, and owned significant assets outright (land, a business, etc.).  They could afford to join a country club.  Some of them may have had extremely low incomes, because they had some sort of hobby job, but they didn't need an income, so who cares. I used to work with mostly very low income people.  They viewed rich as able to afford a nice new car (not us, we only had the money to buy used with a car loan), designer clothes (not us, we shop consignment out of necessity), mansion (not us), can afford jewelry (again, not us). I just don't get the obsession with HHI as the only determinant of wealth.  If you've earned 80K a year for 25 years, invested prudently, and had a SAH parent, you might have a net worth in the millions in your forties.  Or a fed worker with an old style pension may have a much lower income, but effectively end up with a lot more cash. But if you've earned 200K as a couple for a 3 years, are paying off the 180K in student loans it took to get that income, and have a child, you may have a negative net worth.  But to people on this board, the person with 200K HHI is automatically rich, while the person with the HHI of 80K is automatically middle class, regardless of how much money they actually have. That just does not make any sense to me. 
Honestly, I don't really care if people want to label us rich because of some definition they made up based on HHI only.  But saying that we don't have middle class values? Umm we are not buying consignment, not fixing the AC on our car, setting our thermostat for 78, not vacationing, and working 80 hours a week because we want to, its because we have to to pay for a roof over our head, students loans, and legal licensed childcare.  I guess people with "middle class values" don't own a home (or pay rent, as our mortgage is less than rent on a 3 bedroom would cost), default on their student loans, and either have to cadge free childcare, receive subsidies (which I thought were reserved for the poor) or go somewhere super-cheap that pays less than minimum wage and isn't licensed. So ok - that doesn't sound "middle class" to me, but I guess I've been wrong all my life, as has pretty much everyone I've ever known.[/quote]

You really need someone to manage your finances if you're struggling to get by on $270,000 a year.  [/quote]

+1 - just because you are bad with money doesn't make you middle class either.  There's no term for that other than "bad with money" and that can happen to anybody in any class.
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I don't see the PP as struggling. I see the PP has having good income but still dealing with the same concerns and living a similar lifestyle as other middle class people. [/quote]
I disagree.  If PP is really in a situation where one job loss would cost her their home then something isn't right.  They are overextended somewhere (likely too much house) or maybe are diverting too much income into paying off student loans (not necessarily a bad thing, but a gamble if an emergency fund isn't in place).  I don't know too many people with a 250k+ HHI that can't afford to fix the AC in their car.  [b]There's more going on here than what was posted.[/b]
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I absolutely agree.  We have a HHI of 90k and would still have enough savings to fix the AC if it broke.  [/quote]

The note is full of exaggeration,  very few people who claim to work 80 hour weeks routinely do.

That said, I hear her frustration but money-management help sounds like a good idea.[/quote]

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