Infuriating facts about our disappearing middle-class wealth

a reply to: tavi45

Well, to be truthful, I'm better off now because I stopped going out to eat all the time and partying and smoking. I always lived within my means, cash only as well, but I was almost always broke by the end of the month.

Now it's a treat. Doing that alone saved me a ton of money.

But I also don't believe in all this financial doom and gloom, only some of it (Much like Climate Change). I've been hearing that the dollar will crash for over forty years now and it hasn't yet.

Standard Definition: $25,000-$100,000 a year is what most would consider as a middle class income.

www.financialsamurai.com...

And here I was thinking I qualified as upper middle class...


I've worked hard, day and night, making smart financial choices for many years, and it looks like I've managed to be "average" for it.

I would resent someone saying its luck, but deep down inside I know that luck has lots to do with it. I've seen many others working just as hard snagged by one event or another, and dragged back to the bottom.

a reply to: lordcomac

I would say it's 70-150k and Im looking at cost of living and quality of life as myarameters.

50k is barely making it these days.

a reply to: onequestion

Barely making it? My wife and I live GREAT on $50,000 a year!

Guess we should start crying the woe is me song?

a reply to: KawRider9

Depends on where you live.

a reply to: onequestion

True. And another thing I take for granted is that we hunt, fish and grow most of our food, so there's quite a bit of money we save right there.

It does depend on where you live.

I've got a friend who was barely making it up here on 25k, sharing an apartment with three other people. She's since moved down to Philly or so and is living comfortably- but I know her rent is more than my mortgage.

At 50k, I was barely making my month to month expenses here- but I'm a single-income homeowner. Property tax on my pathetic < 1/5 lot of land and my run down home are upwards of 400 a month, and the huge purchase price (artificially created by low interest rates coupled with predatory lending) means I pay more towards the interest on that loan every month than I pay towards the loan itself. By a depressing ratio- even though I throw down extra every month.

I'm making a bit more now, and it feels really nice to have been able to purchase some emergency provisions this past year, but if something bad were to happen and the cash flow, I don't think I'd be able to keep a roof over my head for more than three months.

What really bothers me about that is I suspect most people wouldn't even make it that long. Twelve weeks of buffer time- this is considered a great achievement in this day and age.

A hundred and fifty years ago, the average person would be genuinely concerned about my situation. I suspect many people today are in awe of it.

a reply to: lordcomac

A hundred and fifty years ago, the average person would be genuinely concerned about my situation. I suspect many people today are in awe of it.

Well...

The equality gap isn't growing in just the U.S. I make a little over 250,000 Yen a month. Net, not gross. With that, I barely have enough to afford my tiny apartment and keep the lights on. I guess part of that is because electricity prices are absolutely outrageous here in the great Nihon-koku. I partly blame the wary Japanese for shutting off all their damn nuke plants, but some folks say that's a good thing.

I used to make (just three years ago) would could be called decent money, and live comfortably.

Now I penny pinch and try to make every single yen count. It's tougher than it was, and I haven't had a raise in two years. I can't say most Japanese have really noticed, or if they have, they're accepting it with the quiet dignity I've come to expect from the people living here.

Just thought you'd like a perspective from an ex-pat living abroad.