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

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

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm having a hard time believing that these exact numbers have been vetted by thousands of readers. The tax bill is WAY too high.  He’s using the standard deduction, but these people have a $1.8M mortgage, so even with tax law changes, they’re going to be itemizing until that loan is almost paid off.  Also, 9% state tax is high for many states, and they wouldn’t be paying Social security on all of that income, only for the first $132,900 of each income.  Also, they should get a small deduction for the 529 plan, be able to deduct $5k for childcare, and some of those healthcare expenses would also likely be non-taxable.  In real life, I’m betting that those people are paying at least $10-15k less in taxes than what he is estimating.

I think that some of the other expenses are too high – I don’t know that you need $4000 of baby items EACH year, and the food expenses are also pretty high.

But the biggest issue is the $53k allocated for childcare expenses – that is 23% of their income, but it’s  really only for a couple of years while the parents have two kids in daycare/preschool.  Yes, the parents will still have to pay for afterschool care and camps and such, but those expenses are not likely to be $53k/year the whole way through.
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