Reply to If you are middle class (<150k HHI), how would things be different if you were rich (>400k HHI)

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Reply to "If you are middle class (<150k HHI), how would things be different if you were rich (>400k HHI)"

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[quote=Anonymous]I graduated from high school in 1998 and that year my parents' income was 147k. I well remember this because I needed the information for the college applications and it was the first time I ever knew how much money they made. On that income they were able to pay for two children to go to expensive prep schools and paid for private colleges with no financial aid. My first year tuition plus room and board was around 28k and was close to 33k by the time I graduated four years later. They bought their house in 1993 for 320k and I remember them being hesitant at how expensive it was and it was a 3k sqft house in a nice neighborhood, but it wasn't huge or extravagant and there were definitely more expensive properties. We did have several nice vacations, including European trips in high school but most of our vacations were going to Maine or Cape Cod and we never went to the Caribbean or went skiing. I was conscious of a budget, and was frequently told this or that was too expensive and they refused to spend much on clothing and they drove their cars for a long time in order to pay the school fees. On the other hand, we ate well and I was never aware of money problems. My parents are now retired and comfortably so. I would describe this as upper middle class, with the full knowledge there were even more affluent rungs of the upper middle classes above us.

My parents could do this on an income of up to 147k in the 1990s. You cannot have this lifestyle today on the same income. The prep schools in the 1990s were 10k a year, today they're over 30k (flyover city). The same house is worth around 800k. The colleges are over 70k a year. You would need to be making 250-300k to have a comparable lifestyle today for the same flyover city. [/quote]

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