Are you middle class?
Was just surfing around, actually doing some research for work on some socio-economic matters when I stumbled across this interesting definition of what it means to be middle class - apart from white collar occupations and education levels, one quantitative way of defining one's inclusion of the middle class is this:
After deducting your essential expenses such as food and shelter - if you have more than a third (33%) left over for discretionary purchases; then you can call yourself middle class.
Hmm... of course, one can argue what is essential, like should transport be part of that (I vote yes, because you need to get to work otherwise no job, no money) and what part of that transport is essential and what is luxury (i.e. your choice of vehicle)..
Very subjective, huh? Even if it does say 33% clearly...
Do I have 33% discretionary income left over? Ermm.. didn't really count it up.. but I THINK I'm a little bit under probably because loan commitments are a bit high at the moment but the cars are due to be paid off in less than a year, so guess we'll be back in the middle class then!
Right now, I think I'm part of the genteel poor.... hehe
After deducting your essential expenses such as food and shelter - if you have more than a third (33%) left over for discretionary purchases; then you can call yourself middle class.
Hmm... of course, one can argue what is essential, like should transport be part of that (I vote yes, because you need to get to work otherwise no job, no money) and what part of that transport is essential and what is luxury (i.e. your choice of vehicle)..
Very subjective, huh? Even if it does say 33% clearly...
Do I have 33% discretionary income left over? Ermm.. didn't really count it up.. but I THINK I'm a little bit under probably because loan commitments are a bit high at the moment but the cars are due to be paid off in less than a year, so guess we'll be back in the middle class then!
Right now, I think I'm part of the genteel poor.... hehe
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