Thursday, March 25, 2010

Are YOU Middle Class?

I had thought we were middle class, till I read this. We earn less than the low dollar amount and have a six-person family.

For the 50 percent of families in the middle of the scale, household income ranges from $51,000 to $123,000 for a typical four-person, two-parent family. The median is about $81,000.
Granted we live in a small town, but our house is two and a half times less than this and we could have had our house paid off in 5 years:
For two-parent families, the typical home is worth about $231,000, accounting for $17,600 in mortgage payments and other costs per year.
Our 1998 minivan was paid off a long time ago.
...the typical family spends about $12,400 per year on two medium-sized sedans or the equivalent, with a new-car value of $45,000.
This could be why we are below average:
In 76 percent of two-parent families, both parents work.
And this is just disturbing:
What's your top priority? In a 2008 poll by the Pew Research Center, it wasn't healthy kids, a strong marriage or a great career; 68 percent of respondents said it was free time.