<p>I saw an interesting study once, where they did a survey with a bunch of people and what kind of income they considered to be in the “rich” category. It completely varied depending on what income they were coming from. The lower the income of the person surveyed, the lower the income they thought was rich. For instance, if they surveyed someone who made 20K-30K, they would on average think that like 70K-80K incomes are rich. So… it all depends on where you’re coming from.</p>
<p>You have a great point there that I completely agree with. I think the thing is just looking at it from everyone else’s points of views, for me that would be seeing it from a 70k-100k income family a year, for some it’s seeing it from the 25k view and others it just depends.</p>
<p>in our town, the average household income is something like 110k a year. </p>
<p>my public school:
<60k: lower middle class
60k-120k: middle class
120k-200k: slightly better off middle class
200-350k: upper middle class
kids at private school (generally 250k+): upper middle class, upper class</p>
<p>It’s very insulated, and the effect is worse among Honors/AP students, most of who come from wealthy two-parent homes. I know it’s bad but once I was really surprised when my friend was complaining about the elevator being broken and having to walk down five flights of stairs in the morning. Me: You have an elevator? Her: No, I live in an apartment building…oops D: </p>
<p>Edit: forgot to answer OP’s question. i’m actually not too scared, surprisingly. most others i know aren’t either.</p>
Whoa, that describes my area/school perfectly, too.</p>
<p>Anyways, as for the thread topic, I’ve never really thought about it, but I sort of see myself being in the same income range as my parents. o__O</p>
<p>my mom only went to a 2 yr college, and my dad moved to america with only around 1000 dollars in his hands and entered a small state school, and now we live in switzerland, my dad has an amazing job and we have a seemingly great life. There is no way i can ever beat what my parents have given me…I seriously feel that as soon as i leave for college in america, its all downhill from there…
and being an only child doesn’t exactly help.</p>
<p>"in our town, the average household income is something like 110k a year. </p>
<p>my public school:
<60k: lower middle class
60k-120k: middle class
120k-200k: slightly better off middle class
200-350k: upper middle class
kids at private school (generally 250k+): upper middle class, upper class</p>
<p>It’s very insulated, and the effect is worse among Honors/AP students, most of who come from wealthy two-parent homes. I know it’s bad but once I was really surprised when my friend was complaining about the elevator being broken and having to walk down five flights of stairs in the morning. Me: You have an elevator? Her: No, I live in an apartment building…oops D: </p>
<p>Edit: forgot to answer OP’s question. i’m actually not too scared, surprisingly. most others i know aren’t either."</p>
<p>I feel like that sometimes. My mother doesn’t make <em>that</em> much (sort of funny since she’s the one who went to an Ivy League school, but I don’t think of it like that). I’m afraid that I won’t be able to make much money in the subject in which I’m interested (linguistics). And, frankly, I have extravagant tastes. I have no interest in living modestly. I have a taste for designer fashions, for accessories from Tiffany and grand old houses. I’ve already gotten used to buying these things for myself and as gifts for others (with money from a job I had. My parents think it’s ridiculous that I buy this stuff), I don’t want to have to give it up.</p>
<p>I’m quite certain that I’m not as intelligent as my father, which bothers me more because I don’t like him. He was valedictorian of his school, but it was a tiny southern k-12 racially segregated school. He got a full ride to his college, and he started working as an engineer at P&G at a time when they hired virtually no one of his race. And he’s one of seven siblings from a family that was not well-off by any means. I don’t feel like anything I do can be that good.</p>
<p>my public school:
<80k: lower middle class
80k-180k: middle class
180k-300k: slightly better off middle class
300-450k: upper middle class
kids at private school (generally 600k+): idiots, our public schools are better than most private ones. But these ones all go to the private school that’s like 45 minutes away. Or they live in River Oaks.</p>
<p>So I guess you’d call us rich. But no-one here really thinks that they are rich. Everyone here describes themselves as middle class. It really is perspective. It’s really different to see other points of view, and it was amazing when all of these kids were pro-Obama, but didn’t realize his policy to raise taxes on people making over 250k a year was hurting all of their families. I would tell them, and they’d say - “no, it’s only for the top 5 % of income earners.” Then I’d say, “boy, 250k IS top 5%!”.
Reality Check.</p>
<p>At 20 I’m already more successful then both my parents combined (not to mention one of my parents is actually in prison). My mom makes about 30k a year with two years of college education. Growing up, I never was stressed out about making less then my mother because her income was barely over the poverty line.</p>
<p>I make a little bit over 100k a year and work less hours then my mother. I’d say I’m fairly proud that I’m able to be successful in life at such a young age. I don’t consider myself to be middle upper class. To be honest, 100k isn’t a lot per year when you factor in living expenses and bills. It may be because everyone I know and meet are bringing in over 250K and I feel like my income is rather average in comparison.</p>
<p>I think anything over 400k would be considered upper class. I’ve believed this even when I was being raised on my mother’s income.</p>
<p>I’d like to be more successful than I am now.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I will be as successful as my parents even thought I am clearly smarter than both. However, my dad is a hard-worker and seemed to be in the right place at the right time to get an insanely good job. Also, making a ton of money is not my goal in life, so I could care less to be honest.</p>
<p>It also depends on where you live. 100k in New York City is not the same as 100k in Alabama.</p>
<p>Edit: My parents make about 80k combined - my dad works full time, and my mom works part time - so I’d say I’m middle class. Neither of my parents went to college.</p>
<p>Doesn’t it matter more how you define “success”?</p>
<p>There are many measures of success and what matters is how you measure it</p>
<p>How do you measure success?</p>
<ol>
<li> Education attained</li>
<li> Salary</li>
<li> Owning lots of things: big house, nice car, etc</li>
<li> Lots of free time</li>
<li> Doing something you love and enjoy </li>
<li> Personal happiness in life and love</li>
<li> A job that fulfills you whether or not it makes money</li>
<li> An exciting or different job (travel, exotic locales, challenging)</li>
<li> Fame or presige</li>
<li> What other people think of you?</li>
</ol>
<p>I really think that people need to choose what is important to them. What if your parents are wealthy but unhappy personally? Then perhaps “more” success would be a happy marriage. What if your parents never graduated high school? Then perhaps “more” success for you would be graduating college.</p>
<p>For me success meant a job that was meaningful and contributed to the betterment of society, lots of free time, and personal happiness. Wealth, fame, owning things, etc were much less important.</p>
<p>I hope my children strive for what makes them happy and consider themselves lucky AND successful if they can pursue what they love.</p>
<p>my public school:
<80k: lower middle class
80k-180k: middle class
180k-300k: slightly better off middle class
300-450k: upper middle class
kids at private school (generally 600k+): idiots, our public schools are better than most private ones. But these ones all go to the private school that’s like 45 minutes away. Or they live in River Oaks."</p>
<p>Holy crap at this and the other one. The average household income in my town is about 65k, and I thought this place was pretty rich lol. </p>
<p>Anyways, I don’t really stress out about it because I don’t really care much about money; I’d rather do what I enjoy. Also, my family went through some rough spots too. My mom was on welfare after she divorced my dad (now she’s married to my step-dad who works at Harley Davidson and makes a good amount of money, and she’s working too), my dad has been unemployed now for the past year, and my brother is homeless. As long as I have food and a roof over my head, I won’t really mind if I don’t make a lot of money.</p>
<p>I have a little bit of success to measure up to. Father went to a good engineering school and worked 30+ years for the Dept of Defense. Couldnt even guess what he made, were solid middle class though.</p>
<p>my public school:
<80k: lower middle class
80k-180k: middle class
180k-300k: slightly better off middle class
300-450k: upper middle class
kids at private school (generally 600k+): idiots, our public schools are better than most private ones. But these ones all go to the private school that’s like 45 minutes away. Or they live in River Oaks."</p>
<p>I was curious, so I looked up the median household income for my county. It’s $39,150. Lol. If you don’t mind me asking, where the hell do you live?</p>
<p>Haha. I consider anything above 80k to be rich.</p>
<p>And I go to school with some of the richest kids in the state. I remember some of my friends saying that their EFC was 99,999. And I just kind of stopped what I was doing and blinked a lot, seeing as this was double what my parents make combined (my EFC was around 2-3% of theirs). =/</p>
<p>And I agree, it is being happy with what you’ve got. Growing up in a world where my parents could rarely afford non-necessity items, I’m now a person who doesn’t get satisfaction over any material items. I’d assume this has also led me to not care what others think about me, which is a defining part of who I am.</p>
<p>Anyway, to get back on topic.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely become more successful than my parents, but that’s not saying much. But I’m definitely not going to let that get to my head at all.</p>
<p>That’s funny Hill, because for me, growing up around people who cherish material items so much has caused me to not get any gratification from them.</p>
<p>Just as a btw, my parents income is like $160,000 right now, but it’s normally $190 thou. My father’s “income” is whatever he takes out of his retirement account. So, when they want to push the income down for more financial aid, he just takes left out.
The avg. income for a family here is $37,543 (I honestly don’t understand how anyone can live off of that). So I guess we’re upper-middle. My mother has an Ivy League bachelor’s and a master’s from Georgetown. My father has an engineering degree from Tuskegee.</p>