# What financial class were you brought up in?



## Monty (Jul 12, 2011)

chickydoda said:


> Why isn't there an option for upper class?
> 
> I was probably middle-upper middle class. Our families funds fluctuated alot too.


i just went by wikipedia for the class names  i wasnt entirely sure what they all were exactly. when i was browsing wikipedia i found out that upper class was only about 1% of the population so i just decided to leave it out


----------



## Black Hole (Jun 9, 2011)

Upper middle class. My parents are in the same career position, at the same institution. They're pretty open with me and my sister about our financial status, which is around 340 000 a year, (my dad says that his salary is approximately 170 000 a year, because we live in one of the wealthiest regions in the country where they pay full professors more than in most other regions, and my mom makes the same amount of money). We don't have any financial problems and are very well-off, and I can do lots of expensive things such as multiple trips to foreign countries for a month a few times a year or going to expensive summer science programs on the other end of the country and my parents are willing to pay. The only real predicament is that my aunt is mentally disabled so my dad has to pay to maintain her house at the other end of the country and to make sure that everything is functioning, which he finds a bit frustrating. 

We're not pretentious at all, which is contradictory to the attitude of lots of other people here. My parents are very humble and only spend money on important things like my education. We don't go to parties or interact with many other people, and we spend a lot of the time volunteering to help out those less fortunate. My parents are very grateful for the opportunities they've had and so am I because I know I've been prepared well.

But all in all, we're not financially struggling and my parents have very strong tenure at a university where they're not really firing anyone.


----------



## OrangeAppled (Jun 26, 2009)

Financially, I'd say that we were lower middle class growing up, and hit middle class in my late teens. We had all the basic necessities, minus health care, but we lived paycheck to paycheck. There was no security, no vacations, no expensive hobbies, little entertainment that cost money, etc. 

In the past few years, we are lower class due to unemployment. When the economy was up & I had a job, then I'd say I was middle class. My parents were middle class then too, because they had savings, health care & money for extras then.

When employed, people in my family tend to have professional jobs with a decent to high level of creativity & autonomy and/or be self-employed, so they're not blue collar types. Pay-wise, their jobs are not always so great though. 

Culturally speaking, we are not down-to-earth types or vulgar; we're bookish, artsy types in my family (yeeees, even the SFs). Most in my family have _some_ college education, with a few actually being 4-year grads.


----------



## Blazing_Glitter (Sep 13, 2011)

Raised by a heroic single mother in the lowest class I know of in the US, by hook or by crook.


----------



## mushr00m (May 23, 2011)

Low class, we didn't even have carpets on the floor let alone central heating.


----------



## Sina (Oct 27, 2010)

Blazing_Glitter said:


> Raised by a heroic single mother in the lowest class I know of in the US, by hook or by crook.


Beautiful
*hugs*


----------



## nádej (Feb 27, 2011)

I grew up in a middle class home, and since I was little my father has become wealthier. My younger siblings are now growing up in what is still probably a middle class home, but my family lives on an upper middle class income. And my mom doesn't work (and never has, since she first became pregnant 23 years ago).

That said - my parents don't do extravagance, and give a lot of money to charities. They've made a point to continue living modesty even though my dad's business has taken off and his income has increased substantially.

I'm very fortunate though, and I recognize that.


----------



## QuirkyQ (Oct 8, 2011)

I'd say that we were more middle class until I was about 18ish. My single mom was offered to be reassigned to a different department at her job, she quit to pursue a career in real estate, but that's a little before the market starting going downhill, and now she owns a small, non-profit business, and finances fluctuate greatly. I'd say we're more low-middle class now. The few luxuries that we once could afford (vacations, a new electronic here and there, monthly shopping trips) are no more, but she takes care of the family and our little dog is the most cared for out of all of us. Seriously, his food is at times more expensive than ours. She sent two girls to college (well, I am on a leave of absence because finances had dropped - but will be transferring to a more affordable school next semester), so I think while money's a bit tight, we're okay.


----------



## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

I think there are more classes than what you put, because I grew up lower-middle. Essentially that means we had many of the comforts of the middle class (went out to dinner as a family on Friday nights, had nice clothes for school, got toys I wanted for Christmas, lived in a house, had land, and had relative stability) but that my parents did work that is/would be considered highly-skilled working class to earn that money. 

So I guess I'm gonna pick "other." Poor kids thought we were rich, and the upper middle class kids knew we wore the taint of the working class.


----------



## QuirkyQ (Oct 8, 2011)

> Poor kids thought we were rich, and the upper middle class kids knew we wore the taint of the working class.


Man, you hit the nail on the head.


----------



## dagnytaggart (Jun 6, 2010)

I was very fortunate, and was well provided-for monetarily.

However, my parents both inherited what they had - they didn't create their wealth, nor did they manage it very well.

So, while I went to private schools, to our own vacation home in a gated community in Lake Tahoe, had the best speedboats, luxury cars and Tiffany's jewelry, I learned nothing about money/life from them, except that it was there to be blown. The traveling and 5 star restaurants once or twice a month were great, but my parents would've been on welfare had they not been born to money.

They had substance abuse problems, my mother was a fuckin' psycho woman, they didn't know how to handle me as a kid (let's just scream at her, buy her a new videogame, guilttrip her for that, and ignore her!), etc.

Anyway, I disowned my family and gave up what little money they had left to pass down to me. I don't need it. I can take care of myself, and I am.

But I do realize that in many ways, I was very lucky.


----------



## Destiny Lund (Sep 2, 2011)

Middle class for a little more than half of my childhood, near poverty the rest of my childhood.


----------



## goodgracesbadinfluence (Feb 28, 2011)

My parents have made between $40,000-$50,000 throughout my life, so I suppose that is middle class. But my grandparents are upper middle class, and they have supported me a lot and paid for a lot of my things, so... yeah.


----------



## Obsidean (Mar 24, 2010)

I grew up in the 'middle class', however, since my dad retired I would consider he is in the 'upper middle'.


----------



## pretty.Odd (Oct 7, 2010)

Lower middleclass.


----------



## Palaver (Jan 5, 2010)

Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell

Read it. Class has a much stronger cultural dimension. There is only so much you can do to escape your class label. The middle class is smaller than number of individuals claiming to be middle class.

Obesity was once an sign of wealth. Now obesity affects the lower classes more the upper classes. Shouting across the house to communicate indicates low status. Advertising your college education on the bumper of your car is low status. Being in a hurry is low status. Purple, once a color of the nobility due to the rarity of the dye, is now low status. Proles have abused the color prompting the upper class to abandon the color. Spicy cuisines are low status, though the upper middle class use their familiarity with ethnic foods to display their worldliness.

Many words have class labels attached to them. You familiarity some of the terms may even betray your class:

barcalounger, trailer park, WWJD, community college, Tom Jones, spam, gin and tonic, dinner jacket, pesto, 100% polyester, white supremacy, homemaker, National Enquirer, The New Yorker, Nantucket, Detroit, credit card debt, bodice-ripper, short-sleeved dress shirt, pocket protector, hunting dog, Armani, Ivy League, inner city, Dairy Queen, educator.


----------



## sly (Oct 8, 2011)

Searching for an ''Elite'' option..










Edit:
But seriously though, the country in which I live has no rich people, everyone is in the middle.

Probably because rich people pay 94% taxes over their spent money, im not kidding.


----------



## Mulberries (Feb 17, 2011)

Lower until my mother remarried and then it "progressed" from middle to upper middle by the time I became an adult. I'm not sure what I am now. I'm educated and making okay money, but my job is unskilled. I guess that's somewhere between lower and middle.


----------



## Recluscientist (Oct 14, 2011)

Upper class with father (INTJ) physician who did well, and wacky mother (ESFP) who watched the kids. Major baggage from narcissistic mother. Dad was a gem.


----------



## Leeoflittlefaith (Dec 8, 2010)

Lower-middle I guess. Lived in a nice house but I guess there wasn't a lot of money going around.


----------

