If you want an honest answer, it's that 400k a year after taxes is like 250k in SF or NYC. You can own a 1.2 million dollar place that costs like 6,000 a month or 72k a year (in SF or Manhattan that's like the median home so nothing fancy outside of the location appeal).
In these big cities 20% of kids are going to private school, and that costs 40k a year per kid. If you decide to go that route and have 2 kids, you have like 70k left for everything including savings for retirement and what not.
The point here is, that this is what middle class America is. It's just that in like Texas or Florida or something you can get this same lifestyle making half as much if not even less. And it's also that in places like SF or NYC a middle class life just isn't possible unless you make an insane amount of money. Additionally, if you are like the average age of people on this website, your parents could have that lifestyle in these places making less than half this amount in today's dollars.
If you want an honest answer, it's that 400k a year after taxes is like 250k in SF or NYC. You can own a 1.2 million dollar place that costs like 6,000 a month or 72k a year (in SF or Manhattan that's like the median home so nothing fancy outside of the location appeal).
In these big cities 20% of kids are going to private school, and that costs 40k a year per kid. If you decide to go that route and have 2 kids, you have like 70k left for everything including savings for retirement and what not.
The point here is, that this is what middle class America is. It's just that in like Texas or Florida or something you can get this same lifestyle making half as much if not even less. And it's also that in places like SF or NYC a middle class life just isn't possible unless you make an insane amount of money. Additionally, if you are like the average age of people on this website, your parents could have that lifestyle in these places making less than half this amount in today's dollars.