Posted on 03/05/2015 7:23:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Depends on the area. Most people making the higher salaries live in expensive areas and hardly feel rich.
$100k combined is the bare minimum to have a tiny yard and 2 kids within 1 hr of NYC. No eating out, no big trips, no private school, no new cars, no private yard. I’d consider $100k lower-middle class around here.
If you make the same $100k just 3 hours away from NYC, you’d feel almost rich. In northeast PA I can own a home 4X the size for half the price of mine and all my other expenses would be half.
I agree, very cute house. It has character.
Agree,
I consider 100K the top edge of “Upper Poor” class.
(I forgot to mention I’m in the dark pit called nyc)
They may not think they are “upper class” but believe me, the liberal tax and spend types think they are. And that they aren’t paying their “fair share” either.
RE: I couldn’t afford a house around where I live. A coop with >$1400 maintenance (and no ammenities) is the best I could do.
What part of this great country is this?
The first thing to remember about making $100K is that governments, at all levels, take half of it.
That leaves a grand total of about $4100/month for the so-called “posh” lifestyle of the “upper class”
Subtract from that a monthly mortgage and car loan payment, school and gear for the kids, and very little remains.
You just described me and hubby minus the kids, they’re all grown now.
The only reason we have quite a bit of disposable income is we did things right. Bought a house we could afford and stayed in it and paid it off. We both retired early and actually planned for it. When we retired the only thing we had was a house payment. I had worked for years to pay everything else off. Now the house is paid off we are set but...we have no write offs and pay max taxes for our income.
yeah, I accidentally left out that important detail: In the dark pit called NYC.
Isn't the "upper income" bracket a definitional category? That is, it would be x standard deviations above the average? So that 20% of Americans are always in that category, if it is defined as the upper 20%?
I consider it "upper middle class", not "upper income bracket."
Everybody I know thinks they are ‘poor’. I have 2 sisters, each with hubbys that make between 60k-70k; they’re both ‘poor’.
I occaisionally work for a guy who complains that he has 5 mortgages to pay each month (rental properties) - and he’s ‘poor’...
I earned a wholloping $22k last year; still have my house, a wife, new baby... we have EVERYTHING we NEED. God blesses us daily. I am rich as far as I’m concerned.
You’re exactly right. I cannot tell you how many times we have received shocked looks when we have pulled out debit cards to pay for groceries instead of food stamp cards, simply because paying with the food stamp card is the norm nowadays.
The original definition of middle class had it consisting of doctors, lawyers, business owners, etc -- people who worked for themselves.
If you worked for a paycheck, you were "working class", even if the paycheck was significant.
Traditionally, upper-class people were able to live well on just investment income, and you were not considered upper-class unless you had one or more full-time, live-in servants.
They’re stupid and liars, which explains why their kids did “Occupy”.
Being the poor upper-class (here in SanJo) keep me very very humble and appreciative of what we have and earned. . .
If you REALLY want to mess with them, pay cash! Better yet, go to a Best Buy, and buy a $2,500 TV with cash. I did that last year, and the BB Employee literally didn't know what to do when I put the money on his station after he rang me up. The boy looked at me like I had three heads, he looked at the money as if he didn't know what it was, and he picked up the phone saying that he had to call the manager. He hung up and said that he couldn't accept that, and I had to pay up front. The entire situation was both mildly amusing and mildly annoying at the same time.
Well, most people that can afford the TV have cards and wouldn’t want to miss out on points. Or they just don’t feel like carrying that much cash.
I get $200/month simply by using cards and don’t have to do anything but buy things I already buy.
It’s free money with zero effort.
It becomes exponentially difficult to attain a higher standard of living. The tax brackets increase, you’re less eligible for any “help” in terms of school grants, health subsidies, etc.. My paycheck, after retirement/taxes/health/etc, is about 60% of earnings. Add to that state sales tax, property taxes, vehicle registrations, etc. - I have less than 50% to actually spend on things I need and want. At $22K/yr you’re probably not paying much on fed/state taxes. I remember getting a $10k raise once, it pushed me into another tax bracket. I couldn’t believe how little it actually translated to in my check.
I’m glad you can live on that, I certainly couldn’t - at least not in a typical city. The costs of children tend to increase over time too. That said, God bless you!
Great points.
It depends on the part of America and even in Californicator Land, the part of California you live in re the costs of living there. In Californicator land, two couples can live in the same city and live a mile or so apart and have incredible differences in the cost of home ownership or rental.
Also, does the couple have kids in private schools and college. We have younger relatives in California, who have one child in a great private high school at a cost of $20K minimum per year. They have another child trying to get into a similar school with the same yearly costs.
This couple has no new vehicles and takes minimal and low cost vacations. Most vacations are rentals for a few days or a max of a week. They do max his 401K donations and sometimes make small deposits into her IRA.
On paper and in the evil minds of liberals, they are very rich. They aren’t and watch their outgo very closely.
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