WaPo: Are you middle class?

[PleaseBlitz]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/middle-class-income/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f002

 

It's an interactive story, so just click the link.  

[CobraCommander]

You are probably middle class.

Your household has a middle-class income, and you have the financial security associated with the middle class. Your income is higher than others in your Zip code and high for the D.C. metro area as a whole. The D.C. metro area is an expensive place to live, so you might be considered high income somewhere else in the country.

Middle-class finances, however, do not guarantee a specific middle-class lifestyle or the ability to pass it on to one’s children.

“The kind of lifestyle we associate with the middle is not attainable to people who are in the middle,” sociologist Rachel Sherman said. “Being able to buy a home, being able to send your kids to college without having significant amounts of debt … those things don’t go together with the salaries that people in the middle are being paid.”

 

 

If I lived in Kentucky I'd practically be a millionaire.

Edited June 2, 2023 by CobraCommander

[purbeast]

You probably aren’t middle class.

 

Your household’s income is too high to be considered middle class, and you have financial security. Your income is much higher than others in your Zip code and very high for the D.C. metro area as a whole. The D.C. metro area is an expensive place to live, and you would still be considered high income anywhere in the country.

 

Definitely still feel middle class though just because of all the damn expenses we have and having 2 kids now.  I mean I guess maybe I'd consider it upper middle class.  But nowhere NEAR feeling like I am high class or whatever is up there.  I don't live paycheck to paycheck, but I also don't just buy whatever the F I want and I don't really buy much in general.  I enjoy going on vacations instead of buying tangible items so that is where I try to spend a lot of my disposable income.

 

Being that the ONLY debt we have right now is a mortgage also helps.  We've had our cars paid off since 2016 or so but will be getting a new car in the not too distant future, and I'm not paying for it with cash, so we'll have another payment.  Having a 2 door coupe sports car that takes premium doesn't really work very well when you have 4 people in your family.

[tshile]

You probably aren’t middle class.

Your household’s income is too high to be considered middle class, and you have financial security. Your income is much higher than others in your Zip code and very high for the D.C. metro area as a whole. The D.C. metro area is an expensive place to live, and you would still be considered high income anywhere in the country.

 

 

i agree with that. 

[Fan since a Fetus]

.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus

[philibusters]

Its telling me my income is too high to be middle class.  I do consider myself to be middle class.   In fairness, I am not that much above the middle class threshold.  Both my wife and I work and we don't have any children but if for example we had two children, we would be middle class according to the Washington Post.

[GoCommiesGo]

Your household has a middle-class income, and you have the financial security associated with the middle class. Your income is higher than others in your Zip code and high for the Baltimore metro area as a whole. The Baltimore metro area is an expensive place to live, so you might be considered high income somewhere else in the country.

 

This feels right, we are straddling a line of upper middle class and middle class. 

[PleaseBlitz]

Glad to see folks are doing well. 

[tshile]

3 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Glad to see folks are doing well. 

I wonder what the correlation between being able to screw around on a forum mid day of a work day, and income would be. 
 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

You are probably middle class.

Your household has a middle-class income, and you have the financial security associated with the middle class. Your income is much higherthan others in your Zip code and very high for the Virginia Beach metro area as a whole.

[GoCommiesGo]

3 minutes ago, tshile said:

I wonder what the correlation between being able to screw around on a forum mid day of a work day, and income would be. 
 

 

 

In my experience the higher your title of responsibility / pay becomes, the less your average day to day workload is. It doesn't necessarily mean you do less work, just the work you do is of a more complex or immediate nature. 

[purbeast]

9 minutes ago, tshile said:

I wonder what the correlation between being able to screw around on a forum mid day of a work day, and income would be. 
 

 

Ever since I switched over to web app development like a decade ago, I haven't had the "IT'S COMPILING!" excuse to use as I'm primarily doing front end development, and any backend stuff I'm doing recently is all node.

[PleaseBlitz]

15 minutes ago, tshile said:

I wonder what the correlation between being able to screw around on a forum mid day of a work day, and income would be. 
 

 

 

Probably pretty high, although I'm not sure it's about screwing around.  People that work with their backs make less, and aren't in front of a computer all day.  People that work with their minds make more and are typically chained to a computer.  Personally, I am in front of a computer for at least 10 hours most day and use ES as a series of short breaks in between doing relatively complex legal work because I can't just grind through 10 straight hours without some kind of mental break. 

[tshile]

3 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Probably pretty high, although I'm not sure it's about screwing around.  People that work with their backs make less, and aren't in front of a computer all day.  People that work with their minds make more and are typically chained to a computer.  Personally, I am in front of a computer for at least 10 hours most day and use ES as a series of short breaks in between doing relatively complex legal work because I can't just grind through 10 straight hours without some kind of mental break. 

yeah I just meant that spending time at work in a football forum as screwing around

[Captain Wiggles]

Quote

Your household is in the bottom 20 percent of incomes in the United States.

 

 Ouch

 

Quote

Your household’s income is probably too low to be considered middle class, but you have the financial security associated with the middle class. 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Just now, Captain Wiggles said:

 

 Ouch

 

 

There’s still time Steve. There’s still time!

[Captain Wiggles]

1 minute ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

There’s still time Steve. There’s still time!

 

For relaxation and the funs? 🤞🤞

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Just now, Captain Wiggles said:

 

For relaxation and the funs? 🤞🤞

Or whatever

[Captain Wiggles]

2 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Or whatever

 

😉

 

[LadySkinsFan]

As a retired person living on SS, I'm luckier that some because my working income was very good. However, I wasn't frugal with savings so living on SS is not for the faint of heart. I pretty much spend everything on necessaries and don't have any left over for fun things. I cook all my own food and a treat is a cheeseburger takeout once a month. 

 

My advice, save as much as you can, pay yourself in other words. And if possible, do the things that you plan for retirement sooner because things change in a heartbeat. Everything I planned for retirement I can't do because of the stroke I had. I can't work at all because I have no stamina, I have aphasia so my memory and writing skills are mostly gone. When I think about my past of sitting at a computer and just writing whatever I needed to and it would just come out spontaneously, I can't do it now.

 

So save my dears! Do it now instead of later!

 

Update after I ran the link: 

 

For a household of 1 in the Austin metro area, your income is too low to be middle class according to two of three definitions. Your household is within the middle 60 percent of incomes, but too far below the country’s median income and too close to the poverty threshold.

 

Your household has a much lower income than most in your Zip code.

That Zip code is high income for the Austin metro area, so comparisons with your neighbors may not give you a good sense of how you compare with your area as a whole.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by LadySkinsFan

[PleaseBlitz]

24 minutes ago, tshile said:

yeah I just meant that spending time at work in a football forum as screwing around

 

Gotcha.  Well, I work by the billable hour, which really means the billable minute, so it's sort of different for me.  But yea, I think if most people are in the office for 8 hours a day, they are probably only doing like 5 hours of actual work during that time.  

[CousinsCowgirl84]

60 minutes 13 seconds = 2 billable hours 😎 then you bull**** on es for the next 45 minutes. Then work for another 60 minutes 27 seconds = 2 additional billable hours. Being able to charge four billable hours in under 3 real hours = priceless.

Edited June 2, 2023 by CousinsCowgirl84

[Jabbyrwock]

You are probably classless.

We're not entirely sure if your household has any income whatsoever, but its pretty clear you wouldn't know the difference between a Monet and a childs crayola sketch of a pile of dog ****.  Go to a museum you uncultured swine, you make us want to shower.

[Captain Wiggles]

He's pure class.

 

Yeah but it's all low.

 

[Renegade7]

Kinda don't wanna know...

 

I make more then both my parents did combined at any point in both their careers by myself...yet things look and feel considerably more expensive then in the 90s, like childcare easily being twice as much compared to what they paid for my sister and I...

 

I don't want to know want the word for that is because it jus feels like unequivocally fn BS...