Middle class people do not live in SFH in upper NW DC, Bethesda, or N Arlington unless they bought a long time ago. If that’s your point of reference you are at least Upper Middle and made choices that spend all of your money.

Anonymous wrote:barely scrapping by eh? i cannot roll my eyes enough.

This should be what #metoo, should become... when rich people talk how they are actually poor.

Poor rich people! I don't know a single MC family that live in a million dollar home, young kids but their phones are that high? This is a chart of what privilege looks like.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not a “stupid article.” It was vetted by FIRE proponents and they agreed with the estimates. As a family with HHI around $320K in NW DC, these estimates are spot on.

The trick is to get a job in DC or Boston, and then move to a LCOL area while continuing to telecommute with the same job. I have a few colleagues doing this and they are very happy, especially in the young kid years.

What "middle class" neighborhood has a median home price of 1.6 million? It's definitely not Silver Spring, which is my definition of middle class in the DC area.

No that is low class, bad schools and a high proportion of low income people (more than 10%)

Dont be fooled by realtors and other cheerleaders of real estate, Bethesda is middle class, it's just not as affordable as it was in the past.

LOL. I know a lobbyist that lives in Silver Spring and has a wife that has never worked. Silver Spring is not a low class area.

Anonymous wrote:Only stupid, insular, non-budgeting people would believe this.

Nouveau rich

Sorry but the younger generation doesn't have massive housing appreciation and didn't get to live in the area for pennies when they were starting out like you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not a “stupid article.” It was vetted by FIRE proponents and they agreed with the estimates. As a family with HHI around $320K in NW DC, these estimates are spot on.

The trick is to get a job in DC or Boston, and then move to a LCOL area while continuing to telecommute with the same job. I have a few colleagues doing this and they are very happy, especially in the young kid years.

What "middle class" neighborhood has a median home price of 1.6 million? It's definitely not Silver Spring, which is my definition of middle class in the DC area.

No that is low class, bad schools and a high proportion of low income people (more than 10%)

Dont be fooled by realtors and other cheerleaders of real estate, Bethesda is middle class, it's just not as affordable as it was in the past.

What has happened is the removal of pensions and retirements from employers so it has to be self funded. No one talks about that and the analysis are done by companies that want to hide this offloading and not show that again the average hhi.

Grew up in the the DC area with high great schools, stay at home mom and dad as a gs14. Definitely made only around 130k/year but the house was only 300 , there was no need for retirement savings.

Anonymous wrote:Middle class people do not own $1.8m houses. Nor do they spend $24,000 on preschool. Or $2,000 a month on food.

What a stupid article.

We make 500k and live in a home worth 800k. Pur PITI is 2400/mo.

Only a fool at that income buys that much house.

This is not all that different from my budget. We have private school tuition instead of childcare and our house cost much less than 1.8M

There are plenty of areas that can be cut back if needed but we are not exactly swimming in a huge investment portfolio. Maxing our 401k is the main savings vehicle, plus some smaller savings monthly to pay for future costs.

Only stupid, insular, non-budgeting people would believe this.

Nouveau rich

Anonymous wrote:How can people spend $4200 a year on baby shit? That's almost impossible. Plus, this stuff shouldn't be an annual expense. We bought a crib and stroller for our first child, then used them until our second was out of the baby stage. it make absolutely no sense.

and no one in a 1.8 mil home should be crying poor.

$70 a day for food is appalling.

And poor them, driving a Toyota SUV instead of a Range Rover.

This is a plush, upper class lifestyle where you have everything you need and much more, and are saving heavily for retirement.

They should also be ashamed at how little they give to charity. gross.

? No.. it's middle upper, but not upper, and I say this as someone who grew up low income.

A plush upper would mean expensive cars, more than two expensive vacations, designer clothing, and eating out a lot.

There are a lot of flaws in the details - but the themes are accurate.

Most people child gear is a one time expense - but as the kids get older those $ goes to lessons and other items.

Child care - becomes after care and summer camps

But most middle class families trade off one thing for another. Most families I know are not doing 529 when they are doing daycare. OR they lower retirement savings to the company match during the lean years of childcare. It is max 401K + max 529 + max childcare.

I posted that in another thread. That's not "scraping by middle class." That's living comfortably middle upper class.

barely scrapping by eh? i cannot roll my eyes enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ooooook.

But if you live in DC, why are you paying anything for your 4 year old to go to school? And why do you need a house that expensive? There are lots of options for much less than that.

4 year olds need to go to preschool in Arlington and MoCo.

The mortgage in the example was only $3900/month. Not sure why they indicated such a high purchase price, but a $3900 mortgage is typical for inside the Beltway.

The point of the article is that typical middle class signifiers in many major American metro areas are now luxuries. What changed?

no they don't "need" to -- they need to have care if you are at work. that is all.