Spinoff: How much does it cost to live a middle class life?

that's not living comfortably. that's living pretty lavishly.

you're saying that somebody in that range was "eager" enough to make 2 car payments on cars around 15-20k, depending on the length of the note, and purchase a house well in excess of 100k. that's living well beyond their means.

on a 35k salary i lived on something more like:

mortgage 680
groceries 450
gas 300
daycare - stay at home mom
no car payment (but for the sake of argument, $200 for one car payment)
insurance 75
cable and internet 100
phones 100
1905

the problem there is you're dumb (sorry) for having 2 car payments going at one time. i've never had a car payment over $200 and never for longer than 2 years. that means that you're most likely spending above 15-20k for a car... or leasing.

also, it's fine if you have a working wife, but she better be able to justify the cost of the car payment, daycare, and gas off of their salary.

i don't spend any where near that (except for groceries) and i make ~100k.

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also, it's fine if you have a working wife, but she better be able to justify the cost of the car payment, daycare, and gas off of their salary

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Thats a good point. Day care can get pretty expensive unless you have cheap immigration labor willing to work for less. Willing to make less to cut your lawn, fix your car and houses, nanny your kids, make sure restaurant costs are cheaper, etc etc etc. If you pay all of those what they are really worth then all of a sudden your lavish life style isnt so lavish.

Its not my budget. Thats exactly the point.

So...your answer to the question is that a middle class family of 4 ought to live comfortably on 35-36K per year.

In his scenario, I'd think 75 was reasonable. We pay a little over 100 per month for full coverage for 2 relatively nice vehicles.

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for auto? not unless you're overpaying or have a a really bad driving record.

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how long does bad stuff say on there, I thought it was 4 years right?

I had some bad stuff on my record 7 years ago so I assume that's gone now, but I still pay 106 a month. In the last 5 years the only thing on my record should be 1 speeding ticket from 2 years ago. What carrier do you use?

When I made around $35K it felt like I was almost destitute. If I had a partner that also made that much and we had 2 kids on top of that, that would have been a struggle.

I would say at least 150k to barely squeak by in a true middle class life

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150k to barely squeak by in a true middle class life

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This. 150k puts you in the top 11% of all tax filers (including married). Anything less than that, and you're poor.

For my area, Athens, $75k for a family is the minimum to call yourself middle class. If you are single with that money, you are donald trump.

Get into ATL, household income of $75k doesn't go as far as people think. You really need two income earners to combine for 100k or more before you are living the middle class lifestyle.

Just my dumb arse middle class opinion.

3nOut, you are so full of shite.