What is your economic class ...

[SensibleAmerican]

Add your options as you see fit ...

(Inflation will change these numbers somewhat, especially at the upper brackets.)

(I'm not using family income in these categorizations. Family income has a greater variance than personal income on both ends.)

Upper Upper Class (top 1% personal income greater than $295,495)
Lower Upper Class (top 5% personal income greater than $130,080)
Upper Middle Class (top 10% personal income greater than $94,891)
Upper Middle Middle Class (top 25% personal income greater than $57,343)
Lower Middle Middle Class (top 50% personal income greater than $29,500)
Lower Middle Class (bottom 50% personal income between $17,970 and $29,500)
Working Class (bottom 20% personal income less than $17,970)
Lower Class (poverty line less than $9,570 for 1 person household, 12.6% of Americans live below the poverty line)

[blonndee]

1. Working class, and not by a whole lot, either. n/t

[leftofthedial]

2. lower class

(now)

was Lower Upper according to your scale until a few years ago.

[Broken_Hero]

3. lower middle class

but I like to call it ...

Barely Making it Class....BMIC...:)

[bigwillq]

4. Lower Middle Class

:(

[misanthrope]

5. Counting my Social Security Disability...

...I'm working class. Without it, I'm lower class...and paid close to a month's income in taxes for last year.

Ten years ago I was almost lower middle middle class.

[bluestateguy]

6. Making it in George Bush's America is hard

People like Bush, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Bernie Ebbers are working day and night to prevent me from succeeding. Let's just say I am surviving.

[hyphenate]

7. Under $13,000

but not working class. Under disability.

[CornField]

8. Lower Upper Class

But it sure doesn't feel like it. I would happily move down a few brackets in exchange for universal healthcare (over 35% of income goes to insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc.)

[bridgit]

9. Lower Middle Class...

:cry:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. Lower Middle Middle Class Last year

this year Lower Class :cry:

[Coyote_Bandit]

11. I would be

three and a half year unemployed with 3 graduate degrees, two professional licenses and a collection of well over 1,000 rejection letters. I think that puts me somewhere below lower class - or something less than poor.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I guess we're on the cusp...

between lower middle middle and upper middle middle. I guess that makes the Blue_in_AK household middle middle middle. :) How average can we get?

[jwirr]

13. Lower class.

[sakabatou]

14. Right now, by myself, I'm lower class

[burythehatchet]

15. Pre or post Bushwhacking?

UMC to LMMC

[natrat]

upper mid- but here in SF that's barely enough to survive

[blues90]

16. 18 months ago I was at 55,000

Today I am jobless for the second time and broke , have'nt worked in 5 months and begin two jobs august with maybe 3,100 per month if I'm lucky and don't loose my apartment , then I will be homeless poverty for sure . So I need a bit of luck here .

[datadiva]

17. Lower Middle Class

Feels more like lower class in today's economy.

[Selatius]

18. If you have to work 40 hours or more to live, YOU ARE WORKING CLASS

It doesn't matter if you are making 50K or 80K a year. If you cannot take more than two weeks off of work without potentially jeopardizing your financial security, you are WORKING CLASS. "Working class" is not a term confined to the bottom 20 percent of the income ladder.

[Pugee]

19. Lower middle middle, but slipping down a notch probably.

My job was supposed to end Friday, but got extended a month, but then I will probably be out of luck.

[Clarkie1]

20. I don't think this is valid at all...depends on where you live.

I'm in California, but there is no way I'm upper-middle class (which according to those numbers, I am). I'm a teacher and I can't even afford a house!

[readmoreoften]

21. Oscillating btwn Lower, Working, and the low end of lower middle.

Right now below poverty.

[Catchawave]

22. This would make a great DU poll....

Just saying :hi:

[MoseyWalker]

23. Option

Where one lives makes a difference.

I used to live in a very expensive place, and now don't. I now own a home that cost 10% of what most would expect to pay. It is a good and solid home, with a lot next door that I own also.

I work for the state government now, but didn't until recently.

I have problems with my job, but not with the cheapness of real estate.

I won't tell you where I'm at, because I don't want anyone else moving in.

Go away!

[maxfisher]

24. No way! I'm upper middle middle? whatever that means?

I can't afford to buy a house in my neighborhood, have over a 100k in student loans, a busted transmission, and my rent just went up 250 a month.

[BrentWill4U]

25. Upper Middle Middle Class

Upper Middle Middle Class

[Freedom_Aflaim]

26. Upper class is defined by Networth, not Income

If you require income for day to day expense, you are at best upper middle class, regardless of your income.

[MercutioATC]

29. It's an issue of semantics, but I'd agree with your definition.

If income is the sole qualifier, stating that the top 5% is "upper class" seems reasonable...but people earning $130k aren't truly "upper class" in our society, they're just the "upper class" in terms of earnings.

[RB TexLa]

27. $130K is "upper class"?

[MercutioATC]

28. Lower Upper, but maybe this should be referenced to location?

Nothing fancy, just a metropolitan area where the cost of living is "average" as a base and a link to a regional income comparison calculator.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. Lower middle middle class.

Only because I have a job. I am thankful for that!

[dysfunctional press]

31. it looks like were an extra-medium...

U.M.M.C. , if the numbers represent household income.

[MoseyWalker]

32. You won't believe where I live and the costs

I bought a solid, hardwood floor home for 19k. This house, if in a city, would go for over 500k. I'm feeling sorry for the overpriced fools that take the bait.

I don't make a lot of money, but don't need a lot.

I can't believe people still want to live in cities and pay amounts for homes that mean they have to live 5 lifetimes to pay the mortgage. I own two big ass lots. My property taxes for both are less than $200.

There is another life out there - way out there - in the wilderness.

And, believe it or not, it's a damn good life.

[dysfunctional press]

33. thank-you, no.

i like our place in the city. i like being able to walk to one of the best sushi restaurants in the midwest every friday, or walking to one of two grocery chain stores within a half-mile radius. or walking to the el for a ride downtown to my choice of world-class museums. i would want two big lots- there's that much more to mow...i don't have to mow anything where we live- not that we don't have a yard- i've dug it up and replaced it, front and back, with wall-to-wall garden, including 2 different water features.
our place is a two-flat, so we'll always have a source of income, since there's an affluent & pricey private university/seminary at the end of the block.
when we bought the place 10 years ago, we paid $131,000...if we sold it today, it'd be worth over $500,000- but we're not selling...in fact- we just ordered a 7 foot diameter, 5 foot deep, cedar hot/hydrotherapy tub that should be up & running by labor day. we plan to be around here awhile yet.

my wife takes the train to her job in the suburbs- the station is 2.5 miles from our house, and on the other end she gets dropped off 1 block from work. in the evening, she usually runs home for the exercise.

a year ago we had thought about cashing out and moving to the rurals- but we decided we have it pretty nice right where we're at.