Reply to Upper-Middle Class vs Middle-Class Lifestyles

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Someone on another thread suggested that it takes $10 million a year to be upper class, implying that someone earning $5 million a year is merely upper-middle. This speaks to the skewed perspective of DCUM posters, and I thought it would interesting to inject a dose of reality. The following is how I would describe a few tyoical distinctions of an upper-middle lifestyle (that approximately 15% of the population enjoy) versus the middle-class lifestyle (that about 50% of the population lives).

Upper-middle class:

1) Housing: A 2500+ SF single-family house in the suburbs, or an upscale townhouse or condo (or luxury apartment) in an affluent suburbs or the city proper (think Berhesda, McLean, DC)
2) Vacations: a 2-week luxury cruise to the Baltics, a winter ski trip, or a few trips to the (owned) beach condo or house
3) Entertainment: dinner at the Capital Grille, Kennedy Center opera or ballet, club-level seats at the Nationals 
4) Education: Public school in a better-rated district or private

Middle-class:

1) Housing: An older house of less than 2500 sf in the suburbs, a townhouse, or an apartment in the suburbs (think Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, Rockville)
2) Vacations: a 1-week cruise to the Caribbean, a 4-day trip trip to Disneyworld, or a week in a beach rental
3) Entertsinment: Dinner at Outback, the movies, regular,stadium seating at the ballpark
4) Education: Public school
[/quote]

So, what am I, op?

5 bedroom house just shy of 2,500 in MoCo (not Bethesda, but not Germantown either).

Both DH and I have advanced degrees and professional careers. No student loans.

Travel: spring break in the Caribbean (sometimes a cruise, sometimes a resort). DE beach trips (stay at a friend's house), lots of long weekends (NYC, philly, Hershey, Williamsburg), big summer trip (alternating road trips and air travel each summer).

We prefer minor league baseball and hockey and college sports (less hassle).

Public schools (good school pyramid; not a W school, but farms are 9 or less).

Kids will likely go to UMCP (we can easily cover tuition and living expenses).

We hate skiing. And my husband would rather cut off his arm than go to the ballet.

Since when is Capital Grille fancy? We like pizza. And crabs. We'll drive to bay a handful of times each summer to eat crabs.

[/quote]

You are definitely poor. [/quote]

Sigh.

Too bad our $230k income means we are poor.

You people are buts. Truly. [/quote]

Not poor but middle class, nowhere near upper middle class for sure.[/quote]

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