Guess we need to start hanging out in a place like this – because stereotypes.
My partner brought up American classes the other day and discovered something shocking: within these weird and seemingly arbitrary classifications a household income over $200,000 OR a net worth of over $200,000 is the baseline for Upper Middle Class.
…We’re Upper Middle Class?!?! Even without my partner I’m Upper Middle Class?! That’s just baffling to me. Yes I know the bias that everyone thinks they’re Middle Class whether they make $5 million or $50,000 based on a recent NY Times article, but I still didn’t consider this. I think of Upper Middle Class people as Manhattanites that own a condo and have a club membership: not mega-spenders like the stereotypes of Upper Class, but definitely very different from what I consider my simple life. Continue reading “We’re Upper Middle Class?”
I feel like I say this every time, but time is flying and money is piling up. I know this gravy train will temporarily come to an end with the next recession, but for now I am LOVING it! Seeing my money compound so fast is still crazy to me. It’s been 8 months since I hit $150,000 while in Thailand on my 10,000 day of life and here we are with 33% more. Just stupid. This has been caused by the high stock market as well as my salary being higher than I anticipated because of bonuses and investing more as a result. My goal for the end of 2017 was to have a net worth of $200,000 and we’re already there with 3 months to spare. I thought this was going to happen on my birthday in 2 days when I receive my paycheck, but instead the market has been on a rampage and I’ve reached my year end goal with 3 paychecks and approximately $22,000 left to invest this year. Just madness. We’ll see how I feel if stocks crash before the end of the year :), but for now I’m floating on a cloud. It’s time to set a new goal.
We’re 75% done with 2017. Madness. Let’s check in on my goal to decrease my spending from $22,491.86 last year by $4,491.86 to $18,000 this year.
Looking back I think I’ve always been fascinated by money. I tried to negotiate prices with the tooth fairy (proof below), was a bank for my siblings (a bad one) and loved collecting foreign currency. My aunt and uncle would often bring me coins from wherever they were living at the time. I also bought fake foreign currency with the little chore money I received. I was such a normal kid 🙂 .
I’ve mentioned that part of my morning routine is catching up on the financial blogs that have been published since the following morning. I find which blogs I’ll read through twitter. I have a twitter list that only includes my financial bloggers and it’s very helpful to keep up not only with their blog posts, but latest news. It’s how I found out one of my favorite and most inspiring bloggers was having a meet up in Seattle and I ended up hanging out with him (and others) all night. It was amazing.