Reply to Study shows that 350k/year is barely scrapping by as middle class

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Study shows that 350k/year is barely scrapping by as middle class"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Almost all of you are still missing the fact that 95% of the country doesn’t have the luxury of maxing out their 401k, saving for kids’ college, living in one of the most desirable cities to live in, paying for premium childcare and/or private schools for DCs, and on top of that still being able to afford relatively new cars and vacations. (Because today those ARE major luxuries) in no country except maybe Luxembourg is your HHI “middle-class”.

But go ahead and keep keep whining about how you’re middle-class on a 300k HHI, then when you’re surprised when people keep getting elected who want to “drain the swamp” that you live in/off of.  or one the other end of the spectrum someone who wants to tax the poo-poo out of you; come back and read about how you think you’re the same as people in fly-over country who are making the ACTUAL median wage.[/quote]

I don’t think anyone is missing that they are living in an expensive city, saving for retirement, and saving for kids college. It is just the scale of these things and the others you listed is so different in a HCOL city than a small Midwest town. If you read any of the financial articles or watch it on tv they are saying we should all be saving money for our emergency fund, 15% for retirement, and some for kids schooling. We are doing all that and yet the money still doesn’t feel like enough. Is it actually enough? Of course.[/quote]

I will say again [b]most of the country CAN NOT even do those things they’re stretched so thin[/b] 
we’d like to be able to save for college for kids and retirement have relatively new cars and take a vacation or two per year
but [b]half the country doesn’t have four hundred dollars to cover an unexpected expense (not hundred thousand, just hundred)[/b] 
We spend more than 10% of our incomes on insurance premiums and copays (even through work), we still have to buy food and pay our mortgages and for cars and gas. We still have to pay sales taxes, property taxes, and income taxes, have to pay for utilities, etc...

Why do you think most people are so fed up with the current state of things? People [b]wouldn’t say the American dream was dead[/b] if most were able to live in the best neighborhoods, save for colleges and retirement, go on vacations, pay for the best childcare, pay for private school, etc... and then still have 1k left over. Plus, heaven forbid you need to downsize and move somewhere cheaper, everyone who owns their house in D.C. could buy a mansion in “flyover” country and STILL have cash left over. What does someone with the average priced house of 250k do?

If you think 300k (top 5%) is middle-class you are clueless.
[/quote]

It feels middle class when there is not much leftover, doesn’t mean it IS middle class. There is a perception that if you make &gt;200k or 300k you are wealthy. It is so much higher than the national median that it must mean anyone making that money is swimming in cash, flying first class, private school for your 3 kids, brand new matching range rovers in the driveway. Again, all perception.[/quote]

If you make $300k HHI, you *can* fly first class, send 3 kids to private, and buy matching range rovers. You just can’t do that *and* save much for retirement.[/quote]

This PP is proof most of these posters live in flyover.  Private school tuition is close to $50k here.  What, 47k?  With a HHi of 300k you’d have to spend every penny you make after taxes to send three kids to private.  It’s laughable you think you’d just need to give up saving for retirement.  No, you couldn’t even save for retirement and send three kids to private.  They’d also need to take on loans for college.  Get it now??
[/quote]

I weep for you.[/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