Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2014/04/24/what-it-means-to-be-middle-class-today?page=2

According to this middle class would be 50% higher and lower than the median income. In the US that means: $25-76K. So those of you making $350K or 800K etc should accept that you are rich. I appreciate that you may not feel like what you think rich feels like because you don't have as big of a house or have luxury cars or something but seriously...you are wealthy.

Here's why you may not think you're wealthy--from the article: "As you work your way up the income ladder, inequality grows," he says. "If people make $104,096 per year, which puts them in the richest 20 percent of the population, they feel ‘relatively’ poor because they compare themselves to people in the top 1 percent of the income distribution – people making over $500,000, but primarily millionaires."

Wealth and riches are assets. A high income doesn't mean you have or are building wealth.

Anonymous wrote:We're 37, 270k HHI. I considered us upper middle class until I read all the lawyers on this thread in their dick measuring contests.

Anonymous wrote:http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2014/04/24/what-it-means-to-be-middle-class-today?page=2

According to this middle class would be 50% higher and lower than the median income. In the US that means: $25-76K. So those of you making $350K or 800K etc should accept that you are rich. I appreciate that you may not feel like what you think rich feels like because you don't have as big of a house or have luxury cars or something but seriously...you are wealthy.

Here's why you may not think you're wealthy--from the article: "As you work your way up the income ladder, inequality grows," he says. "If people make $104,096 per year, which puts them in the richest 20 percent of the population, they feel ‘relatively’ poor because they compare themselves to people in the top 1 percent of the income distribution – people making over $500,000, but primarily millionaires."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our situation is unique in that I have a trust, so while I SAH and my husband makes $300K (which maybe would be UMC?) our annual gifting creates a different set of circumstances. The kids have trusts set up as well, so we don't have to save for their college, which removes a huge burden. Because we receive an annual gift of $56,000 (tax free) it changes a lot about our lifestyle. He travels quite a bit, so we are able to take free vacations with mileage to their homes in two different vacation destinations, which is extremely helpful. While his salary and ESPP and stock/bonuses alone would make our life comfortable (for sure!) its really the annual gifting that puts things into a different category for us. Also, the knowledge that ~ at some point, god willing, assuming we stay in good health, we will inherit a huge amount of money, is a sort of safety net. That said, he still maxes out his 401K and we save as aggressively as we can.

I know that we are extremely fortunate to have such circumstances, we routinely donate a flat 20% of what we are gifted to charity as well as run an annual fundraiser, and try to give back in as many ways as we can, as well as raise our 2 kids to be civic minded from their (young) ages. We live nicely but humbly (house is 750K inside beltway) and below our means, our friends would never guess we have this trust.

Because of this I would consider us upper middle class.

Well no you're wealthy but sounds like you're trying to stay grounded and living within your earned means even though you will likely continue to be given extra money. Your charity donation in particular is great!