$30K-90K in Florida sounds about accurate to what I thought. I can’t imagine even knowing someone that makes $140K considering I live near areas where the median income is $20K.
@thanksagain It is household income, so a couple of public school teachers making $50k each would be upper class. Woo Hoo!
I live in a relatively nice neighborhood in Los Angeles County- apparently 40-70k is our middle class. In general, if you are middle class you will MOST LIKELY not be on the free lunch program. I believe if a family makes less than 60-70k, they qualify for reduced lunch? That would mean that most of Los Angeles Counties “middle class” will fall under the low income status.
Makes no sense.
@NotForEveryone I realize that. I should have specified household income in my post and, yes, I consider $100K for a household a lot of money where I live.
@sprights
The only families in that range qualifying for reduced lunch are families of 6-8 people. A typical family of 4 must make less than $45K per year to qualify for reduced lunch (in the 48 contiguous states).
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-03-31/pdf/2015-07358.pdf
Where I live- $35k—$54k is middle class according to the page linked earlier. We have a lot of kids on free lunch in our school system.
Wealthy, you feel comfortable supporting your child into adulthood, with their ventures, including college.
Middle class is- you expect your child to attend college and you worry about paying for it.
Poor families don’t see a different life for their kids.
Attending college is a dream, they can’t even think about.
$150,000 a year living in a nice Manhattan, NYC neighborhood as a SINGLE adult is like living on $55,000 a year in Houston, TX. With kids on $150,000 a year in Manhattan, you’d have to start saving as soon as your child is born to build up enough money to send them to a 4 year private university. It sucks because need-based scholarships do not take location into account.
So, basically, I think location is a huge factor in your economic “class”. Where I live (rural PA), $100,000 a year will get a family of four a 3,000 sq. foot home, nice furniture, a brand new Nissan, and an overall good quality of life. In Palo Alto, you’d be renting a 2 bedroom apartment and hesitating to take the kids shopping at Burlington Coat Factory or Target in your used Honda.
Does that mean that the two families are in different “classes”? No! It just means that, unfortunately, one family has to spend more money to live in their neighborhood and they have less purchasing power.
This is all based on friends I know and what their lives are like.
There’s no way to LABEL a specific income as “middle class” because money spent on basic necessities varies so much from place to place. I believe that you DON’T need material possessions or a specific income to be middle class. As long as you’re able to afford necessities and still have a little money left over for the occasional movie or trip to the local restaurant, you’re pretty middle class to me.
The wealthy on the other hand don’t have to worry about restricting grocery bills or pay attention to how often they fill in their gas tank. They don’t have to look at the tuition rates of a private university and cringe… That’s the difference between wealthy and middle class- They’re very financially secure. There shouldn’t be a specific income associated with that in my opinion!
It’s all location!
To my surprise, my family qualifies as middle class - for our less than thriving county. Almost anywhere else we’d be working class poor.
Here on Kauai, they say $50,500-74,500 is middle class. As in, that’s the middle range of income. So we’re middle class, and that feels right to me, but I know many people who make much more and would also consider themselves middle class - and I’d agree. They certainly can’t have whatever they want, have to pinch pennies at the grocery store, etc. Also consider - as far as I know, you can’t buy ANY house on this entire island for less than about $350,000 (and that’s a dilapidated, single-wall construction, very small house on a tiny lot). In 2008, the cheapest house was over $450,000 (market is still down from there). Might get a one BR condo for $250,000. And everything else costs 10-20% more due to shipping costs. So our “median income range” certainly doesn’t buy what most people would consider a middle-class lifestyle. Wonder if that is true in other places as well?
@emeraldkity4 Well said.
$45K - $67K. Still laughing about $67K being the upper end for middle class in our area.
We’re at $80K and feel lower middle class when it comes to putting our sons through college. Although we do have a 3100 SF house, have paid for private education for the past 12 years, and drive cars that are older than our sons, we still live month to month and have scrimped and sacrificed to pay our monthly bills and stay out of debt.
At $67K, we would have to downsize to survive. At $100K and remaining frugal, we could put aside some money for college. At $120K, we could drive a car with less than 200,000 miles. But at $80K, we are at the mercy of whatever college will offer the best financial aid package. There’s no 1st or 2nd choice. There’s only best financial aid package.
The poor can not pay for travel sports. The middle class weighs the costs. The lower middle class will have a harder time justifying the cost, and have a higher likelihood of passing. Cost would not be a factor for the upper class. Of our friends, many from the public schools chose to sacrifice and pay and play, and a few from the private school did as well. But for us and with paying tuition, we could not justify the costs for either of our sons to play any travel sports.
Didn’t you just start another thread asking if you can qualify for aid by filing the FAFSA even though your family earns $400k/year? You truly think families who have an income approaching half a million dollars should qualify for need-based aid?
Poor: Less than 57k
Middle Class: 57k ~ 86k
Upper Class: 87k+
My parents make an income of 100~115k. We are upper class according the the calculator, but we are still far from it imo.
Well, I see middle class as the income one needs to afford to own a modest home. In my area of California, an income of 95K is needed to buy a median priced home today. Of course, I’m not an economist. Perhaps home ownership isn’t what the rest of the country expects middle class america to accomplish anymore.
to be considered upper end of middle class in Seattle, you need more ( slightly) more income than in NYC.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-middle-class-means-in-50-major-us-cities-2015-4
General rule of thumb is that “rich” people are everyone who makes at least one dollar more than you do.
If you want to talk financial aid, realistically almost everyone on CC would be considered lower to middle class.
What I mean is- yes, a family who makes around $150,000 a year can by all means live a very comfortable and fulfilling life if done responsibly. They could of course afford a nice house, a good car, some nice vacations, etc etc within reason where a family who makes $20,000 a year most likely could not. Does this make them upper class? Perhaps.
However, when it comes to funding for college, most if not all families w yearly incomes of $150,000-$200,000 cannot pay the total price of college. This isn’t because they’re not making a good chunk of change, but because of how ridiculous the price of college has become. Just because you make $150,000 a year doesn’t mean you can afford to shell out 1/3 of that each year to college, if not more.
Maybe my opinion would have been better expressed by just saying the price of college is pretty outrageous by today’s standards 
Wealthy = you don’t have to worry about how you will pay your rent/mortgage each month, even if you lose your job you know your income will continue/resume and that you won’t be forced out of your home. You might have a second “vacation” home, or a boat or motor home that you own (not rent out by the day). Your cars are < 5 yeas old and are clean. If you have to pay full price to send your kids to college, you have the money available.
Middle Class = you can pay your bills, including rent/mortgage, every month without having to tighten your belt. You would not be able to pay your rent/mortgage if you lost your job. Your cars are probably still being paid for, you get them repaired when they need it but they probably have some dents and dings by now. If you have to pay full price to send your kids to college, you’re probably going into debt for at least part of it.
Poor = there is a very real chance from month to month that you cannot cover all your bills. If you lose your job, you definitely would not be able to cover rent. You probably are a single parent raising your children alone, with little or no Child Support from their other parent. You either do not have a car or it needs repairs that you cannot afford. You will not have to pay full price to send your kids to college pretty much anywhere; however, they probably go to underfunded public schools and are not really academically prepared to be competitive at the university level.
Apparently I’m above middle class but it certainly feels like we are not that “wealthy”. I’m in Nassau County on Long Island.
Middle Class is a small range here, only 76K-115K, and getting smaller. A 60K salary, which would get you a nice house in North Carolina, would land you in not the best areas here.
There’s a lot of variables, as everyone says, but I think that the upper boundaries of middle class are much harder to define than the lower boundaries. If a family is making 50k and looking at a family that makes 150k, then that first family would probably say that the 150k is rich- however, in modern America, that’s not necessarily extraordinary unless they have no dependents. 150k with 2 kids, a dog and a sick grandmother is much less net savings than 100k with no dependents.
@austinmshauri I also stated that I do not believe I am needy for financial aid. I wanted to know IF I can. The figure might seem big to you, but after taxes, the take home pay is in the high 200’s. Yes, that is still very high but at the same time, it’s not going to get you a mansion and a Bentley unless you’re really dumb with money. That post was out of curiosty