Reply to At what HHI did you stop feeling middle class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Two observations:

1) Many people here seem to be basing their beliefs on this on their past experience as a "middle class" person. I know many people like this in my life. They grew up UMC but don't seem to realize it, either because their parents basically lied to them their whole lives or because of some artificial or temporary circumstances that made them feel like their family was struggling even though it wasn't. For instance, I know a lot of doctors' kids like this. They may remember some years when they were young when their doctor parent was a resident and things were tight. But by the time they were in high school, their family was firmly UMC and their parents could pay for things like private school for multiple kids, college without loans, grad degrees, assist with down payments on houses, pay for large weddings, etc. People like this live with a myth about their upbringing and it makes them overlook the many, many unusual advantages they have. So as adults, they don't "feel" well off until they have a nicer lifestyle than their parents. They don't understand their parents were, and are, very well off.

2) As an actual middle class person (125k HHI) who also grew up actually middle class (parent HHI was between 50k and 80k as I grew up) I would argue that the experience of being middle class has not actually changed that much. The amount of money it takes to pay for the same stuff has changed, but the lifestyle is similar. You can afford to own a home, but it will be small, or far out, or not updated, or potentially all three. You can have kids but the burden of additional kids is huge, largely because of the skyrocketing costs of college. Your kids go to public schools, and the schools are ok but problematic in pretty much all middle class neighborhoods. You might be able to move into a better school, but you will need to make serious sacrifices -- renting an apartment in an ancient building, for instance. You are unlikely to be able to buy in at this point, even if you are willing to buy the crappiest house or a tiny condo. You can take vacations but it's mostly via car (it's hard to afford airfare except maybe once every few years). You rarely stay in hotels and when you do they are budget. You don't eat out a lot. Most of your disposable income goes to stuff that richer people view as necessities (activities for kids, for instance). And so on. This is how I grew up, it's how I live now. The biggest difference is that we have school debt (neither of my parents had to take out loans to attend their public colleges) and we are terrified of how much college will cost for our one child. We stopped at one in large part for this reason, and even then, this is the largest source of financial stress, especially because our kid has turned out to be a smart, academic kid who will definitely want/need college to pursue an appropriate career, but is not some kind of superstar (and we can't afford to make them look like one the way rich people can). The cost of higher education is one of the central concerns on which I will vote moving forward because as things currently stand, our kid will either need to take out enormous loans or forgo college at even a state university. Maybe community college would be an option, but even there the ROI seems bad.[/quote]

You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders. On college our daughter goes to Maryland and lives at home. She has a part time job and we pay the rest — less than 10k a year. Room and board and the college experience is where they get ya. Bare tuition at in state school is usually doable for most people especially if child contributes a little which by the way is good for them. Even 10 hours a week makes they so much more efficient with their time.  [/quote]

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