Please Define Upper Middle and Lower Class

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Dreadsox

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What amount of money is the cut-off in your mind for upper, middle and lower class based on income?

Please, specify, single or double income.....

Thanks.
 
Of course, this also depends on what part of the world, and, if you're talking the United States, what part of the country. Living standards vary widely between New England, the West Coast, the Midwest, and the South (not to mention Alaska and Hawaii).

I would state that a healthy middle class, with the wife and 2.3 children, makes between $50,000 and $80,000. Lower middle class is $30,000 to $50,000 and upper middle class is $80,000 to $200,000. Anything above that and you really are out of reach of most of this nation's income earners.

All of these statistics come from one wage earner (e.g., one job).

Melon
 
Heh....so I am in the lower class :wink:

One wage earner...with wife....two kids.....under $50,000.
 
I guess with a combined income of just less than forty grand with 2 kids, my husband and I are are low class :sigh: It's true, those who work the hardest make the least. Viva la revolution! Eat the rich!
 
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Lower middle class people! That is not the same as the lower classes, which make below $30,000, in this categorization. I fall into that category right now.

Melon
 
Perhaps, but if your single and have no childern, your standard of living probably exceeds that of someone in the Lower Middle Class that has a wife and kids to support.
 
Now, my wife does work....so that changes things....however....figure on spending.....drumroll

$1,300 a month in childcare.

However, dual income still....barely with two incomes.....puts us just above....your middle middle line.
 
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On paper, we are upper middle class but after federal, state and self employment taxes, we suddenly fall to lower middle class :|
 
Bono's American Wife said:
On paper, we are upper middle class but after federal, state and self employment taxes, we suddenly fall to lower middle class :|

Being self-employed is fantastic! all the BS that goes with it :down: Thankfully, I have a substantial tax-free medical monthly police pension for the rest of my life and it covers certain aspects of our daily life; unfortunately, even with that there's not enough to stuff away for the future.. :(
 
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Bono's American Wife said:
On paper, we are upper middle class but after federal, state and self employment taxes, we suddenly fall to lower middle class :|

That is where I start mentioning national differences. Places like New England, California, and Alaska/Hawaii should have different designations, because of the expense of living in these parts of the country.

Melon
 
I think the average "run of the mill, standard neighborhood Orange County home" runs approximately $480,000.




What can I buy in Arkansas with that kind of cash????? I only pick ARK because I've been there and have seen some property that, at the time, went for pennies on the dollar.... :|
 
I believe that class is more an attitude, a state of mind, than earning figures. Of course you can define someone by how much they earn, but when I think of "class" I think of the way people act and their lifestyle.

For example, I had a lecture on this topic once and we watched a documentary about a family in Sydney. They originally lived in the western (read: poor) suburbs, and were what you could call "stereotypical" lower or even underclass people. Then they made a fortune from their forklift company, and were wealthy enough to buy a home in the North Shore (read: RICH) suburbs, and send their kids to the most prestigious school in the city. But they did not act like their neighbours, they didn't get invites to cocktail parties because they couldn't shake their western suburbs upbringing. In this case, "class" had nothing to do with how much they earnt.

And, of course, it's different based on where you live. Here in Brisbane the social divisions are nowhere near as distinct as they are in Sydney. If I say, I'm from the northside of Brisbane, it doesn't make any difference because all the suburbs' attitudes are, on the whole, uniform. Of course there are the well-off suburbs and the battling suburbs, but there's not really a stigma on anyone.
 
According to your cut-offs we're lower middle class. I'll never have a job for this reason, I'm such a stubborn mule, I refuse to work my butt off, run around with my head cut off, jump because companies are too greedy to pay my husband what he's worth. We'll beat them at their own game. No one tells me how I have to earn my money and what I have to do to get what I want. My husband, either.

Can you see "entrepreneur" written all over us? I don't have any problem being poor as long as we're free. "A singing bird in an open cage who only flies for freedom."

We are starting our own business and eventually businesses (he does indeed work for a greedy company right now). We'll make enough to survive on our own with my husband's multiple, highly profitable talents, as well as my own.
 
I know people who waste more in a year than I make, and I hate them for it :grumpy: I also hate the system that keeps us down. The inequities of the past have not gone away, only changed forms.
 
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