Middle class is the middle. So pick your bell curve.

Bottom is lowest 10%? 20%?

Upper class is the top 10% or 205

Middle is the remainder.

It doesn't matter how you feel. Or if you choose to drive you 20 year old Honda civic. It is where you fall on the bell curve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/line-between-middle-class-upper-110130857.html

Varies by state.

I love that you provided actual data.

Short version - upper middle class ends around 200k in DC/MD/VA (175 in Virginia as whole, NoVa would probably be closer to 200k)

You think people making over $200K in DC/MD/VA are upper class? Absolutely not.

If you have to use salary to figure out where someone is, they're not upper class.

+1. Our HHI is 415k and we are broke. Broke as in proper savings, living on tight budget, rarely eating out, simple beach vacations, frugal shopping etc.

Broken in common sense too. If you are on a tight budget at your income you've messed up somewhere along the lines.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upper class doesnt have to work. They can live on dividends and businesses.

Nonsense.

I agree. It's hard work directing the help.

Anonymous wrote:Upper class doesnt have to work. They can live on dividends and businesses.

This is nothing more than a definition of convenience so that you can sit there and claim that you are a humble denizen of the middle class despite earning a million plus per year because it takes a job to be able to continue to afford a principle home worth 3+ million and at least 1 vacation home worth more than a million and 3 to 5 luxury vacations every year. And yes, I understand you only get rooms at the four Seasons and not suites. And yes, I understand you don't have a private plane or a personal chef. You're still rich.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/line-between-middle-class-upper-110130857.html

Varies by state.

I love that you provided actual data.

Short version - upper middle class ends around 200k in DC/MD/VA (175 in Virginia as whole, NoVa would probably be closer to 200k)

Oh yay! DH and I with our 290k HHI from 2 fed salaries and our 2,300 sq ft 1940s rambler, and 529s that will hopefully cover state schools someday are upper class! I’m so excited to hear this. We are basically the same as the people who own second homes in Nantucket and spend their breaks aboard yachts.

Yes, you are upper class. Sorry if that offends you. Does that mean you are obscenely wealthy? Not it does not. But 95 percent of households in the US make less than yours does. I don't know how much more plainly it can be put. You (like me in my similar circumstances) are upper class.

Anonymous wrote:We are absolutely upper class by economic standards (hhi @$1M) but we don’t live an extremely upper class lifestyle. We live in nyc and own our home and a second home and pay for private school but we don’t take super luxury vacations and don’t fly first class with our kids, don’t buy or wear designer clothing etc. We budget and make choices about how we spend our money because it isn’t unlimited.
I think that’s the reality for a lot of UMC and UC families. There’s a big difference between $1M hhi and $10 or $100m.

Is this satire? Ok, you don't live an EXTREMELY upper class lifestyle. You live a VERY upper class lifestyle.

"Don't fly first class with our kids"--ISWYDT LOL

Anonymous wrote:Here's a calculator in the WaPo where you can input your income, household, and zip code:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/middle-class-income/

HHI of $300k in Arlington, where we live in a 1930s 1400 sqft home and we've never paid more than $30k for a car, so we don't drive very nice ones. (Our income has risen a lot in the last 6 years; we bought the house when our HHI was closer to $200k).

We also are putting 2 kids through college (albeit state college) without loans, have saved for a comfortable retirement, and if one of us lost our jobs (highly unlikely), we have enough savings to pull us through about 7 months without breaking a sweat. We live a very comfortable life.

The WaPo calculator puts us in the top 5% of incomes in the US and says the following:

Your household’s income is too high to be considered middle class, and you have financial security. You live in a very high-income Zip code and make more money than most households in the D.C. metro area. The D.C. metro area is an expensive place to live, and you would still be considered high income anywhere in the country.

Many Americans consider themselves middle class even if they have very high incomes and deep financial resources. According to sociologist Rachel Sherman, that might be because the middle class is associated with morality and hard work in American culture. “A lot of people in the top 5 or 10 percent would define themselves as upper-middle class, because people don’t like to define themselves as upper class,” Sherman explained. “There’s a lot of ambivalence about being rich, and wealthy people resolve that by thinking of themselves as hard-working and implicitly middle class.”

FWIW, I think this is completely accurate. I grew up middle class, so I know what that looks like. This ain't it.

I understand the cognitive dissonance that occurs when one looks at their very modest home and is asked to consider themselves "upper class." But if I am in the top 5% of households, I cannot reasonably call myself "upper middle class."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/line-between-middle-class-upper-110130857.html

Varies by state.

I love that you provided actual data.

Short version - upper middle class ends around 200k in DC/MD/VA (175 in Virginia as whole, NoVa would probably be closer to 200k)

You think people making over $200K in DC/MD/VA are upper class? Absolutely not.

If you have to use salary to figure out where someone is, they're not upper class.

+1. Our HHI is 415k and we are broke. Broke as in proper savings, living on tight budget, rarely eating out, simple beach vacations, frugal shopping etc.

We are absolutely upper class by economic standards (hhi @$1M) but we don’t live an extremely upper class lifestyle. We live in nyc and own our home and a second home and pay for private school but we don’t take super luxury vacations and don’t fly first class with our kids, don’t buy or wear designer clothing etc. We budget and make choices about how we spend our money because it isn’t unlimited.
I think that’s the reality for a lot of UMC and UC families. There’s a big difference between $1M hhi and $10 or $100m.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from England where we have a real class system, based on birth, education, profession rather than just finances.

Here in the US the "class" system is a joke.

This. Americans strive so hard.

The US system is better than a system with rigid labels imo.

Omg so much better! Brits can be insufferable snobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from England where we have a real class system, based on birth, education, profession rather than just finances.

Here in the US the "class" system is a joke.

This. Americans strive so hard.

Because it’s so much better to base it on your birth family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from England where we have a real class system, based on birth, education, profession rather than just finances.

Here in the US the "class" system is a joke.

This. Americans strive so hard.

The US system is better than a system with rigid labels imo.

Anonymous wrote:I am from England where we have a real class system, based on birth, education, profession rather than just finances.

Here in the US the "class" system is a joke.

This. Americans strive so hard.

Well there's the objective measure of income distribution and the subjective measure of "feeling."

Anonymous wrote:Here's a calculator in the WaPo where you can input your income, household, and zip code:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/middle-class-income/

According to this we were MC 3 years ago but now we are very very far from middle class. We're still in the same house living the same way so I don't see a difference in daily life.