Are you really still middle class?

[nuthatch]

Check your state. Glad I don't live in Maryland . . . who knew?
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[agate]

I left the middle class at precisely the time when MS came along. I'm one of the great unwashed, down on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

[Howie]

Eye bee Poe.

[Virginia]

Very interesting. I am below the median household income, but just within the middle class income. I don't believe it. However, it could be true. Maybe that is why so many people seem to live much better than I do. Their median household income is more than the middle class is.

[stillstANNding]

I may have left the middle class when I stopped working. It depends on what the numbers were in 1996.

I rejoined the middle class by adding Peter. It was a great trick. ;-)
ANN

[Virginia]

Ann, you are one smart lady!

[Jeanie Z]

:) I am way below the lowest figure, so poor I guess. Jeanie :)

[nuthatch]

Interesting to see that there is a range +/- of nearly one hundred thousand dollars within the middle class in every state. It would be interesting to see the differences in prices from state to state, to get an idea of how far that income goes. I know that the price of real estate is high in California and certainly varies depending on what area you're in. California is expensive in other things, such as gasoline too. We haven't seen the price of reg. gas go below $3 for years now, but I am always seeing on the news that it's much lower in other states. Property taxes is another eye opener.

[stillstANNding]

That's true, Joan, here, too.

When I worked for the federal government (VA hospital) at the end of my career, we got COLA adjustments at least twice of thousands of dollars added to our base pay. This was because of the cost of living in the Boston area.

(It turned out that that job was an unplanned brilliant choice. I was vested after only 3 years w very good benefits.)
ANN

[Cat Dancer]

Even when both of us worked, we never got near the low end of the scale for Wisconsin ($38,000). The only way we got this house and land is through an inheritance from my mother. And now, with both on Social Security, and TC's tiny pension from the state ($335/month, after 11 years of employment), we get by, but only because we don't have to pay a mortgage on this house. His social security check goes to pay our health insurance premium, mine goes for everything else, including saving for property taxes once/year, and heating in winter... so no, not now middle class, never have been.

[Sunshine]

And yet we all are able to eat and transportation and a home? And internet...Maybe the numbers are off?

[Cat Dancer]

And yet we all are able to eat and transportation and a home? And internet...Maybe the numbers are off?

I wonder if the numbers don't take into account that many people measured might be like us- - own our own home. And have stuff accumulated over 50 years of marriage, so aren't buying school clothes, and taking care of kids, and buying stuff for the house (lord knows I already have enough stuff for this house and two others! :) ) So we can get by on a lot less than folks who have to pay rent/mortgage, or are buying cars (we already own our cars), or having to buy clothes, etc.?