Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

You are rich. The definition of rich is that you have more money than most people. That is the definition. Maybe you are not obscenely rich, but you are certainly rich by any reasonable definition of that word.

Based on that definition, everyone who is in the top 50% of income is rich, since they by definition have more money than most people. Try as you might, there is no objective definition of rich. This is why we stick to somewhat more subjective terms like middle class, and upper class.

I guess my "luxurious" $840K house and nanny so I can work are luxuries we shouldn't have.

Your luxurious 840K house is probably pretty luxurious. I can certainly find many houses in that price range that are pretty fantastic. Unless you're insisting on living in some kind of HOA dystopia? Because you have no taste?

And yes, it may seem shocking, but being able to hire a personal servant to care for your child IS a luxury. Many people make do with day care centers... and no, I don't mean the kind that cost as much as nannies. When our kid was in daycare, we spent 220/week for it. I assume you pay your nanny more than that.

You are rich. The definition of rich is that you have more money than most people. That is the definition. Maybe you are not obscenely rich, but you are certainly rich by any reasonable definition of that word.

A million dollars may have bought you more in 86... (although interest rates in 86 meant that you were paying a lot more for things like your comparable mortgage, car loan, etc.) -- but I can guarantee you that in 1986 the people without a million dollars in the bank were a lot better off, retirement-wise than they are now. Now you are surrounded by huge swathes of this country where no one has anything: no health insurance, no pension, no savings. All anyone has is cheap consumer goods and credit card debt. In the middle of all of that, you are extremely fortunate--and sadly too boorish to appreciate it.

Now, you will counter with a lecture about how "hard" you worked for everything, and how irresponsible all those people with six figure medical bills and no pension are.

As someone who's probably about 40% down in her 401K betwen this year and last, I have to say, fuck you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, people, people.
Each post from above is indeed a post by a person whom is NOT rich. It is the situation we live in, where there is no real wage growth. Sure, I agree, $200K looks great on paper. But it is in no way rich. I make about $350K and I am by no means rich.
However, take note, voters:
if you make $250K or more, Obama and his pals consider you part of the 1%, and, somehow, the govt is trying to tax you more. Pay attention. You aren't rich, but, if the govt feels you are rich, then the PC wage gap people will do something about it.

You're nuts. Unless you have three kids or bought an overly expensive home then you're doing something wrong. We make over 350k and save over 140k in a bad year. We weren't able to save this much in a higher col city than DC because housing costs were much higher and so were taxes.

Also taxes really haven't increased much over Obama. There's the Medicare surcharge and that's really it. Also check out trump's platform because he also thinks you're rich at 250k.

How is this savings possible? We make 320K and our net is 14k per month, so not sure how you save 12k per month? Can you post a budget please?

It's 401k match, deferred comp and extra equity payments that brings us to 140k.

So your overall compensation is greater than $320K. We make this much and struggle to save a fraction of what you do. I guess my "luxurious" $840K house and nanny so I can work are luxuries we shouldn't have.

They aren't things you shouldn't have. They are just thinks the vast majority of people do not have. Since you have them, you are rich.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

Totally agree. Out of pocket payments for a couple of major medical procedures could wipe out most of that million. it shows you how far your money takes you nowadays. Most people really are clueless and closer to living at the edge than they think.

Yes. Disasters happen that can devastate even the truly obscenely wealthy. But just because such disasters exist, that doesn't mean you are not rich. You are, by definition, rich if you have more money than most people. That is the definition of the word. I think the word you are looking for in independently wealthy. No, you are not independently wealthy. You are just rich.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

You are rich. The definition of rich is that you have more money than most people. That is the definition. Maybe you are not obscenely rich, but you are certainly rich by any reasonable definition of that word.

Totally agree. Out of pocket payments for a couple of major medical procedures could wipe out most of that million. it shows you how far your money takes you nowadays. Most people really are clueless and closer to living at the edge than they think.

If it comes to that, you should just buy a plane ticket to a country with sane health care, take your cash with you, and get the stuff done there. If you are spending a million dollars of your own money on medical stuff in the US, you are not only an idiot, you are part of the healthcare crises we have here. Seriously. If it was me? I'd just die. I am not kidding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

You seem to define "rich" as "only people who can heat their houses by burning $100 bills," in which case the word is totally meaningless. How about this: If you have a HHI of $250K you are in the top 3% of our country, income-wise. The top 1% is about $400K/year and up.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/income-rank/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

Totally agree. Out of pocket payments for a couple of major medical procedures could wipe out most of that million. it shows you how far your money takes you nowadays. Most people really are clueless and closer to living at the edge than they think.

If you can afford to save that much yearly but not get good health insurance, you are truly an idiot. No one saving 200K a year is living on the edge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

The ability to save that much yearly is what makes you rich, dumbass. Money doesn't buy brains, obviously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

Totally agree. Out of pocket payments for a couple of major medical procedures could wipe out most of that million. it shows you how far your money takes you nowadays. Most people really are clueless and closer to living at the edge than they think.

Anonymous wrote:
So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

This is not 1986, a million dollars in the bank plus retirement doesn't make you rich. I am so sick of people who thinks someone like me is rich just because there is someone poorer out there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, people, people.
Each post from above is indeed a post by a person whom is NOT rich. It is the situation we live in, where there is no real wage growth. Sure, I agree, $200K looks great on paper. But it is in no way rich. I make about $350K and I am by no means rich.
However, take note, voters:
if you make $250K or more, Obama and his pals consider you part of the 1%, and, somehow, the govt is trying to tax you more. Pay attention. You aren't rich, but, if the govt feels you are rich, then the PC wage gap people will do something about it.

You're nuts. Unless you have three kids or bought an overly expensive home then you're doing something wrong. We make over 350k and save over 140k in a bad year. We weren't able to save this much in a higher col city than DC because housing costs were much higher and so were taxes.

Also taxes really haven't increased much over Obama. There's the Medicare surcharge and that's really it. Also check out trump's platform because he also thinks you're rich at 250k.

Saving over 140k every year does not make you financially rich. Having a multimillion dollar house, multiple vacation houses, buying million dollar cars without batting an eye are some of the things that make you qualify as rich. The world has changed and most of us are wage slaves, some doing marginally better than others financially. FWIW we save over 200k annually apart from 401k and 529s and I would never say we are rich. The truly rich are out of our league.

I totally agree. If you *have* to work for a living, you aren't rich. The English class system, which we base ours on whether you want to admit it or not, was based on this very idea. You were either of the "leisure" class and pursued hobbies all day long or you worked. UMC people could be pretty well off but if you were still working to make money, you were not Upper class.

So if you can't sit around in your pajamas all day, you are not upper middle class?? First of all, upper middle class doesn't mean 1%er. It means well off. I'm so sick of people who are extremely well off trying to pretend they aren't just because there is someone richer out there.

If you can save 200K annually in 5 years you'll have a million in the bank plus your retirement and whatever else you have saved. If you don't want to call yourself rich, fine. It doesn't change the fact that you are. I can call myself the queen of England if I want but it doesn't change the facts.

Lot of fat in there. I can make the same table with million dollar income, eat 10k a month and have nothing let or even negative -1k a year.
Lot of waste and luxuries there that are not necessary.

Anonymous wrote:What is an extra equity payment?

We oay an extra 1600 a month towards our mortgage. It goes to principle. This way the mortgage will be paid off in 15 years instead of 30.