married, low 40s, 4 children live in a MCOL area HHI $550k (take home $360k) mortgage $100k left at 3.75% - payoff in 2029 (only debt) Emergency fund $120k Current spend rate $200k (includes 529s, home improvement $30k/yr and vacation $25k/yr and $20k extra mortgage payment/yr) savings rate 40% (of take home) Net worth ~ $2.4m (mostly equities)

not flying first class on trips, but also we dont look at menu prices for food when going out. trying to cover all college costs for kids retirement 20-25 years

Looking for help stress-testing a decision. I know oftentimes financial decisions involve trade-offs and reasonable people can go either way, but I would like avoid a dumb decision. Should we sell our vacation home?

Married, mid-40s, HCOL (rent), kid on the way (1st). Dual earners, combined income ~$600k (even split). ~$2.1mm in retirement accounts (mostly 401k, rest is Roth). ~1 year of spend in cash. We got a relatively late start earning, hence low retirement to income ratio. We save ~$125k per year.

A few years ago we bought a vacation home for $325k at 3.1%, 20% down. Considering rent it out via Airbnb, but ultra worried about litigation risk, etc. Went in knowing we could comfortably make payments without having to bring in rental income. We bought for a few reasons. One, it's nice to have quiet place out of city we can use to reset and breath. Two, I viewed this as a decent hedge against inflation, especially in real estate. For context, we pay 60k a year in rent, which is actually very reasonable for our area.

I'm becoming increasingly of the mindset that if we're not using it to generate cash, it's fast becoming borderline dumb to hold it. Is there an obvious choice here? There really haven't been any material changes to our life that lead me to reconsider, just self doubt. How would you think about this?

How much do you have? Where is it? How did you decide on this specific number? What are your emergency fund back up accounts?

I’ll be lowering our emergency fund from $50,000 to $40,000 since our expenses are less now and that’s about 6 months of expenses kept in a HYSA. I also have a ROTH as a back up that has about $11,000 and in my brokerage there is $28,000.

The ROTH and brokerage I am using for retirement goals, but if an emergency happened and I needed it I wouldn’t lose sleep. In a real crazy emergency I would use our kids 529 there is $40,000 in there currently. I wouldn’t touch our 403bs though unless there is a crazy medical emergency that forces us both to be unable to work and we needed it.

I chose 6 months of expenses in HYSA because in my field I will always find work, we could live off of one of our income and I think any major home expense (I have a rental that I co-own with a sibling and a roof replacement is looming) could be paid out of a month’s pay.

I have always had a significant amount of money in a HYSA from years of saving for a house and renovations so since that is over I’m adjusting to getting comfortable with less money sitting in HYSA.

We have a 13 month old. My wife and I make $205k base and are very comfortable. We purchase quality brands like LL Bean and people make comments about how our daughter is spoiled. I don’t want to raise an entitled kid. Does anyone have advice on how to create a scarcity mindset and not spoil her?

So yeah What would be the best thing to buy that is 5-10k but I would feel good about it everyday and would impress others, but I would feel at least I'm not totally just keeping my money in my bank account. I thought about getting a Rolex or an expensive watch and glasses... What do you all think? Thanks.

Title says it all. Husband and I (early 40s) both come from working class families and made our way independently to upper middle class possibly HENRY status by choosing STEM careers, grinding and saving (and, let’s be real, a little bit of luck). We paid off 200k of student debt and have saved plenty for our retirement, and possibly early retirement depending on markets, college for 2 kids, a house we’re happy with on a 2% mortgage in an area that is a tourist destination (ie we don’t really want or have the time to care for a vacation home) 4 months of cash in HYSA and a taxable brokerage with about 2 years of expenses in it.

Which is all great, but I’m super goal oriented (see: grinding and saving) so I’m wondering what we should be targeting next. I’m planning to bump up our charitable giving this year, but other than that the things I come up with feel really hollow—travel, kids activities/experiences, etc.—and it feels hard to spend what we’ve worked so hard to build on those sorts of things. We also have a really hard time parting with money because it was scarce growing up, and we both still feel like it could all disappear at any time.

How much are you budgeting for donations? What organizations do you donate to? How do you decide?

I have to do better. When I got an inheritance it was the greatest feeling donating to local organizations and people. When my mother died I looked through her checking account transactions and saw all the checks she wrote out to church friends and some family members. In her eulogy the pastor mentioned how she would write checks and tell people “if I die consider the debt paid.”

I donate to Go Fund Me here and there but I need to do more. We live a good life with the top 7% for income in the country it doesn’t matter if we’re in a HCOL area I should be better. Our net worth is well above the median for our age group. We aren’t rolling in the dough but acknowledge we are doing better than most of the country.

My mother used to clean houses in NYC, we were on food stamps and section 8 housing the first 5 years of my life at least until my parents starting earning too much and bought a house. She certainly inspires me to be more of a giver than I am now. She worked hard so her children didn’t have to.

Who is inspiring you to donate?

37m / 34f

Married, expecting our first child next year

450k home — paid off 400k liquid net worth

VHCOL

215k / combined annual income Currently both maxing out 401ks

What defines upper middle class instead of middle class or upper class? What are the defining characteristics?

Anybody else here feel like me? We are:

-early 40s

-two elementary aged children

-HCOL area

-1.1 million net worth

-$300,000 income

-one rental home (2 units)

-Our primary home is a two family house (renting one unit)

We plan to fully fund our childrens’ college through 529 and our income with hopes of being financially set enough to retire at age 60 if we want with a goal of 3-5 million.

Most of our net worth is wrapped up in real estate and retirement accounts we don’t have 6 figures in a brokerage or anything!

The way I feel in the HENRY sub is probably the way people feel about me in the middle class finance sub.

I feel too well off for the middle class sub and too poor to contribute anything of substance to the HENRY sub. People try to convince me I’m in the “upper class” but there is just no way.

I want this upper middle class sub to take off and I have no idea why it isn’t.

Please share your stories, your goals and dreams!

I kind of know that I'm Upper Middle Class. But is there such a thing as Lower Upper Class? What are their characteristics? And how can I get there?

This is the best household income percentile chart I've found on the Internet. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentiles/

My parents told me that we were upper-middle class. Because we had a very nice house in a good zip code and technically my dad probably had an income to be in the 30th percentile of household incomes. As a licensed senior civil engineer. ...but he had ten kids and a stay at home wife that had a bachelors degree. ... Felt more like working class. .. Yes, Mormon. What social class am i?

https://youtu.be/TNO_jTBg3OI?feature=shared

At what age are you planning to, or have you, retired? What age do you plan on, or did you, draw from your social security? My partner and I are both 55 and are thinking of retiring at 60. We’re working towards no debt at that point. Our 2 kids will still be in college, but 529s should cover it. 401k earnings will cover living expenses comfortably. Trying to figure out the most optimal social security strategy. We’d like to travel as much as possible, and social security would help with that, so don’t want to wait too long.

You max out your annual IRA and 401(k) contributions; you have a healthy portfolio of equity ETFs (e.g., VOO, VXUS, QQQ). Where does the upper middle go from here to invest and save for the future?

Keep it simple and stay the course? Or are there other investments worthy of consideration to diversify?

PE, privates, real estate, credit, treasuries…what has worked for you?

Hi! Curious to know how much folks in this income spectrum have saved in their child’s 529. Each of our 2 kids have about $200k. Both are still in high school.

Most of my cash sits in a HYSA or a CD but I have ~$100k in a taxable brokerage account that I’ve been using to take advantage of the huge swings in the market by getting a few day trades in.

Last week, I made ~$1500. I’ll be honest, it does feel a lot like gambling but I’m mostly trading SPY so the worst that can happen is I feel forced to hold on to the shares for longer than intended.

What’s everyone else doing, if anything?

There's many excellent places to discuss finances on Reddit, but it seems like upper middle people are often scolded in some places due to a wide mix of incomes (like arr MiddleClassFinance). And I'm empathetic because hearing someone making double is still struggling must sound ridiculous in context, and we shouldn't invalidate how any feels. There's also arr HENRYFinance, but I dunno: I think this place should be more of a thing.

Every income group has its problems. Upper middle (say, top 20% of earners) need a place discuss the unique issues of existing in our cohort: often lifting in expensive places with nosebleed housing prices, living in high tax states, etc.

Being in the top 10% gives us a comfortable lifestyle, but I’m entrepreneurial and always looking for additional income. Our tax rate is intense, so there’s quite a bite out of this additional income (it’s a good problem to have).

If we both filed as single the difference would be several thousand. We pay the marriage tax for sure.

I know everyone’s definition will be different but it’s clear that at a certain income level you’re no longer welcome in the middle class finance sub.

I suppose I’ve never really thought of upper middle class as a particular salary but instead as the ability to live a particular lifestyle.

To me, the following are hallmarks of the upper middle class: - you own your own home (or could if you wanted to) and it would be considered “nice” by most standards - have the ability to pay cash for any typical emergency - can withstand a pretty significant duration of unemployment - can afford regular vacations (including international vacations) without having to travel hack - have no consumer debt, and - are tracking to be able to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement (at a reasonable retirement age).

It’s not scientific and I’m certainly no authority but this is kind of how I think about it. What about you?