What's "Middle Class"? What I earn!

[disneysteve]

Exactly. Some people (and even politicians!) get all worked up with the concept of middle class, thinking that those 75% who make less than $40k live right next door to them and have the same expense load.

People do live in rural areas without high property and school taxes, and get by just fine being in that 75% category.

So true, and sometimes just a few miles makes a huge difference. As I said earlier, my town has a median income of 90K. I work in a city with a median income of 18K. My office is 8 miles from my house. Cost of living varies dramatically in a very short distance.

[SmartSpender]

Relativity

I think it really is realitive dependant on your demographic - America is such a vast nation that what is considered 'middle class' can mean different things in different places. For instance when I lived in the middle of a bunch of cornfields and the medium income was 20K, the farmer who made 50K was considered wealthy. Now I live in the Chicago North Shore and 100K is considered poor. My thoughts are its not a dollar amount - it's can I pay my bills, and save some money - thats how much 'middle class' is.

Smart Spender

[TheKayla]

I'd say I'm middle class income at $40k in large-city Iowa, minus dealing with my loans. I also make slightly more as my parents that are now in there 50's, but they live in a 15k population town too. With about that combined income from my parents growing up, we took a cheaper vacation every few years, lived in a moderately sized home, and didn't get college paid for but had food on the table and access to lifes necessities plus a little more.

It does vary greatly by location for sure. If I lived in say, NYC, I wouldn't know how I would necessarily afford both food and rent on my current income. I'd be lower class definitely. Of course though, in my profession, the average for what I do would be $90k there too, so it's all relative.