Reply to Can we stop referring to households making $200 or 300K a year as "middle class"?

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Reply to "Can we stop referring to households making $200 or 300K a year as "middle class"?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I would consider myself pretty middle class for this area.  I make about $95K, although that varies a little depending on how much overtime I get.  I'm a single parent, with 1 child with special needs.

On that salary, I'm able to afford the necessities, without scrounging for money.  I pay rent on a 2 bedroom apartment, buy groceries that are healthy and varied although with a lot of things like eggs, and rice and beans to stretch the budget.  We have warm clothing, and the electric bill gets paid every month.  My daughter and I both have pay as you go phones.  I take the bus and subway.  We have health insurance.

If those things were all we had, then I'd consider us working class.  If we were living doubled up with relatives because we couldn't pay rent, or if the lights got turned off on a regular basis, or if I was walking the 3 miles to work at the end of the month when the checks ran out, or if we were going to bed hungry or didn't have health insurance, and it wasn't due to financial mismanagement then I'd consider us poor.

But because I make a solid income, I have money left over for "extras".  Not every extra I want, but I can pick and choose somethings that fit with my priorities.  Right now, my priority is my daughter, and addressing her needs.  Because of that, I pay a few extra hundred a month to be in a school district that I think is a good match, and that is close to work so I have more time for her.  I pay about $300 in Dr.'s bills, $300 for prescriptions not covered by insurance, $600 for therapy, and $800 for academic supports (tutoring and the like).  I also put her in some extracurriculars and camps that I think are good for developing her skills, and probably pay a few thousand a year for that.  Let's say I pay $2,500 a month for those things.

I could, of course, make different choices, and if I didn't have a SN child I almost certainly would.  I could put a portion of that $2,500 towards a mortgage and buy a townhouse or a larger condo with amenities like a second bathroom or a washer/dryer, in a less expensive area.  I could buy a car and pay insurance.  I could put more money towards retirement or a well funded college fund.  Plenty of middle class families choose to do those things with their disposable income.  What I couldn't do is have all those things, and the things I have now (therapies, expensive extracurriculars, walkable high cost of living close in neighborhood), and still be middle class.  To me, that would be pushing me into upper middle class, or out of the middle class altogether.

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