We're middle class (under 175k/year); many of my clients are what I would call rich (5-10 mill/year). A lot of the parents at our kid's school are filthy rich (10-15 mill/year). A family member of mine is uber filthy rich, as in 20-40 mill/year.
“Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.” - Natalie Goldberg
LOFL that $175k is the upper limit of "middle class." Errrbody's middle class! No.
yes. let's have a reality check, no? $175k/year is about the top 6%, i'm guessing based upon the below. let's ask people at the median ($50k/year) if that's middle class.
I don't know what middle class is, so I just threw out under 175k. I was reading an article thiss weekend that said 250k a year bought a middle class life in NYC, so I was going with less than that. I don't make that.
edit: and is middle class the median income? I would not have thought that.
Fair enough, I guess it does depend on the cost of living in your area. Anywhere I have lived, $100K was pretty much the upper reaches of middle class, and even that is kind of stretching it.
We live middle class/upper middle-class since that's how we grew up and is our familiar and comfortable lifestyle, although technically we'd be considered "Obama Rich" income-wise. ((this was supposed to be a raised eyebrow emoticon) to that, we have to retire someday, you know?) We reguarly interact with richie mcrichersons and/or highly educated, live middle class in the course of our preferred lifestyle, DH's family is well-educated middle-class government workers and professionals, and much of my family is lower-income or low/middle-income socio-economically. Education-wise we're all over the map as well (university presidents, attorneys, ministers, government workers, para-educators, disabled, under-employed and unemployed.)
Post by peachykate on Jan 23, 2013 15:00:57 GMT -5
I would say 90% of my clients live below the poverty line. At one time most of our friends were somewhere in the middle class but in the past few years I am sure some are now under the poverty line.
I have no idea if I have any super rich friends, if I do they hide it well.
Post by rupertpenny on Jan 23, 2013 15:13:21 GMT -5
I ride the bus sometimes, in a place where riding the bus is not done. Does that count?
For real though, everyone I interact with is middle class and has about the same level of education (I can only think of one person I socialize with regularly that does not have an MA or JD).
Post by Captain Serious on Jan 23, 2013 15:44:35 GMT -5
I do. Depending on who you ask, we are upper-middle class or lower-upper class. Many of the people my husband works with are upper-upper class rich. We socialize with them outside of work as a couple about every two months or so. Many of my friends are just-scraping-by middle class. Many of our friends in Vermont would be considered lower class by income level. My sons are from poverty, and we maintain relationships (telephone calls, e-mails, visit when in Peru) with their caregivers and old "orphanage siblings."
We're middle class (under 175k/year); many of my clients are what I would call rich (5-10 mill/year). A lot of the parents at our kid's school are filthy rich (10-15 mill/year). A family member of mine is uber filthy rich, as in 20-40 mill/year.
Shit, if $175K/year is middle class, then I'm not as middle class as I thought I was...
We are very middle class (I'm a legal assistant, H is a teacher). Most of our friends are the same, but quite a few are paycheck to paycheck. I do get a fair amount of interaction with "the beautiful people", through my dad and my work environment. We do estate planning, and you don't generally do EP work unless you're at least middle class.
Now, the way SIL talks/acts/spends, they're living in poverty. Her H makes 75k+ a year, and they make horrible financial decisions, so that's an entirely different story than what we're talking about.
I'm middle class. The only extremely wealthy people I interact with regularly are some high level donors and board members. My ex husband's family were 1% type rich, and I'm sure many members of my club are as well, but not RICH rich like some of our top donors. I regularly interact with poorer people, but not 3rd world country poor. Even when I did student teaching in a Philadelphia School, my poorest students were welfare/housing project poor, but not starving Cambodia poor.
regularly interact with people from radically different income brackets. i'm not talking about nest poor. i'm talking you're obama tax bracket rich, say, and you regularly deal with people who live at or near the poverty line (say). or you're average middle class income and you know richie riches (not just obama rich. like, um, dubai rich or something).
me: no. while my workplace and where i live are ethnically/racially diverse, generally speaking my colleages and friends are all upper middle class and above. where i live does have a lot of income mix in the sense that there are multi-million dollar homes, apartments, section 8 all within i'd say about a square mile or half-mile, but my street and the immediately surrounding streets are all pretty much the same upper middle class.
My renter is on section 8 and just lost her job, again, and has no more unemployment benefits, so the gov pays 90% of her rent.... does that count?
My aunt & uncle are 'obama rich' - have 2 homes - a mansion in TX and a lake shore Condo just south of Navy Pier.
Post by revolution on Jan 23, 2013 21:04:29 GMT -5
-our families are fairly diverse income brackets -my job has me interacting with the VP's, presidents and CEO in Chicago and then I turn around and interact with the set assembly group -our friends are all from a similar income bracket as we are
We interact with a spectrum. I've befriended women who live in our complex whose husbands make a lot more than we do, but we also have friends back in the U.S. who make very little (H is from a pretty low income area). And I interact here with a lot of people living in really substandard conditions. I don't know how much our ayi (cleaning lady) makes, probably not much.
One of the organizations I volunteer with provides funding for heart surgery for children whose families cannot afford it, I volunteer in a playroom where I get to interact with the parents and children.
Most of our friends that we spend time with regularly are around the same economic status as we are.
I am lower middle class, and I teach at a private school that has a fairly affluent community with a few filthy rich outliers. A few years ago, a student was late to school because his dad wanted to celebrate selling his privately-held company ... For six billion dollars.
I do, through work typically, but also socially. At one of my client sites I work with the leadership team down to line-level workers. Huge differences.
hmmm. I regularly socialize with people whose annual household income varies between about 20K and 500K . (My guesses on income. I don't tend to talk money with friends, especially around the swing set at the park). So some variety.
My probono work is with clients who make between $0-10K.
Post by wildfloweragain on Jan 23, 2013 22:29:46 GMT -5
I guess I interact across the spectrum, but I'm in the middle (Not Suesue Middle, I'm a teacher and DH is a fireman, so less than 100k/yr right now but we are fine.)
As a teacher, I interact with students/parents who are extremely poor, homeless, etc. and multimillionaire parents, but nor Dubai rich, I don't think. Danny Wegman rich, yes.
My mother makes very little, probably 35k with no retirement and several of her friends are quite rich.
I'm neither dubai rich nor dirt poor, so I guess I can't be chillin with someone 2 groupings above or below myself as described int his post.