Anonymous wrote:It really depends where you live. In DC, it takes a lot more money to live an upper middle class lifestyle than it does in my hometown in Upstate NY.
In DC, bottom end is probably 250K but in upstate NY its probably closer to 150K. The price of housing, services, food, kid activities, make up the difference. Those two families probably live similar lives with 100K difference in salary.
That's the key. My brother & SIL live in Indianapolis, IN. They took big pay cuts but live better there than they did here in the DMV area. They have a huge house on land that would be millions here in our area. They just bought a summer home on Lake Michigan that I'm going to visit in 3 weeks. They were lower middle class here in the DMV area but are definitely upper middle class to even lower upper class in Indiana. They kept getting priced out of all houses here and got sick of spending $2000+ a month on rent for nothing.