What "class" would everyone say they're in?
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Rising Star
What are thoughts on leaving in January?
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You’re all living with blinders on, everyone in consulting is upper class. There’s no official definition but widely agreed is half to 1.5x the median income. Median household income in the United States is about $80k. Median income (individual is $38k). Let that sink in… if you make $15k to $60k, that’s middle class.
We’re all 1%ers here.
Lol wild take Sage 1. This was true before the stock markets were created. So if I’m a mechanic making $40k but I own a few shares of Microsoft, I’d be middle class. And if I come from old money but it only covers my mortgage, I’m middle class? Those definitions are quite stale. You can’t combine income distribution, net worth, AND how you live compared to your means all together into your own class definitions. Gotta pick one or at least two.
500k TC, I'd say middle maybe even lower middle. After my Audi payments, little timmy's daycare and juliard piano lessons, my wife's monthly Nordstrom budget, our mortgage (no we couldnt get a place in tribeca so
timmy can walk to daycare, we had to settle for west village and uber him there every morning. Thanks biden🙄) and our grocery list we only save about 4 grand a month.
Father used to save at least double this (I think. He never let us see the money) and still take us to Aspen and Miami every year.
Why does your wife need a Nordstrom budget…
500k combined TC, married one kid
MCOL
Middle-ish?
It’s definitely not upper anymore. Upper-middle, maybe. Unfortunately we didn’t start making this kind of money until housing had already shot up.
Honestly I don’t know how some people are doing it unless they just can’t get ahead. We are getting ahead, but not by much
132,250 TC. I feel middle class. I can pay my bills and save a good amount, but vacations are difficult and I need to carefully plan big purchases. I have student loans so that also effects my outlook.
Live in MCOL city that’s creeping towards HCOL
My husband and I have $6mm LNW, make combined $1mm a year, living in MCOL area, no debt, two kids…think we are upper middle or middle??
Rising Star
Yeah no definitely, multimillionaires in MCOL areas are middle class where the median income nationwide is 80k 😂😂🫶
Rising Star
Top of upper middle, DINK couple in nyc pulling about 600k combined
Rising Star
I'm HENRY, high earning not rich yet.
Just got into this earning bracket pretty recently.
To me, "upper class" is more to do with net worth
My wife and have been around $600k combined income for 4 years. When we had debt it felt like we were barely keeping up but now that we’re free it feels like we’re rich.
These discussions probably need to separate relative income/wealth (with respect to other Americans) vs how far money goes. Relative income wise, it’s in the 1%. How far that money goes, it’s upper middle class if I continue to save conservatively for retirement. Main culprit, like for most folks, is housing + cars being way too expensive. I’ve held off on buying either. Most folks, even in the top 10%, do not save enough for retirement
You can posit that, but that’s not how the economics discipline sees it — google all the theories and you’ll see most base it on distribution of income
Middle middle class, 1.7M HHI
Too modest…lol
I think I’m rich, 2.6m NW 320k tc
I'm in the top 3% in the US
I'm in the top 20% in the NY Metro area
My TC is 130k and NW is 150k as single person in NYC and I’d say I’m middle class. I make enough to invest/save 40% of my post tax income, pay all my bills, and still have enough left over to have fun/travel :)
80k tc and I would say lower middle class
I am lower to middle, middle class. A decade ago I would have been solidly upper middle class but times have changed...
What is the definition of the classes?!
We would be rich if real estate wasn't going up faster than my salary. Inflation sucks, but this mortgage is what really eats into discretionary spending.
Rising Star
Lol I'm in Manhattan, can't touch a down payment yet to even get to a mortgage, stuck on the rental hamster wheel
British peeps, take this test to find out your economic class. I’ve landed in the established middle class but will probably fall once I buy a house 😅 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2013/newsspec_5093/index.stm
Single. $325k TC. Upper middle class.
Whether you are middle class by American standards is really going to be a zip code based analysis.
People who rent because they can’t afford a down payment, will generally struggle to build up their net worth.
I rented a house with 3 other friends out of undergrad, and all in with utilities, it was approximately $700 a month (3K total per month, I had one of the smaller rooms). That allowed me to save quite a bit and with consulting, I was really not home much.
I bought my first primary home at 29, and had it for 3 years before moving to a city that had a much higher cost of living. I was able to save and so I paid a hefty down payment long prior to interest rates going up, and was able to buy. The other advantage that provided, was that the house appreciated significantly, so when I sold most recently and moved outside the city, between savings and profit, my current home could be a cash purchase.
That family member rented for twice as long as I did, and rented for over 2x more than I did. All reasonable for the market but over time it really adds up.
Calculators like that are broad and based on their models, tend to make some broad albeit reasonable assumptions.
Going strictly on household income, ours is around $200k and that probably makes us upper middle. However, I have a large family (8 adults and a baby) in our household, so that income doesn't go terribly far.