Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Are you Middle Class ?

Sam,

Trust me I know work. My point being my 25 year old successful son with two "babies" makes twice the above numbers renting in San Antonio and collects grocery coupons. One car payment the other owned. Where one lives and age matter. Their "luxury" is their faith.

That amount of money wouldn't go far here.
We ain't rich, but we do just fine.

That trait used to be much more common.


The richest guys wearing used work clothes.
And working!


3 guys come to mind.
A trucking company/coal mine owner, a driller, and a guy who owned multiple outfits.
Folks talked bad about all 3. "He dresses like he doesn't have a pot to piss in, and he is one of the richest guys in the county." 2 were double digit millionaires in the 80s.
All three were willing to get dirt, grease, or crap up to their shoulders at a minutes notice if need be.

Folks wondered about their "success"!🤣🤣🤣
A bit of luck, a ton of work, smart money management.
All three were dirt freaking poor as kids.


On the other hand.
The guy in the car business 10 years ago.
30's moving a ton of used cars. Expanded, big lot, garage.
His name on cars everywhere.
He bought the house, the boats, the bikes.
Then one day the cops took him, the banks took the cars.
He got behind, (surprise) started not buying the promised warranties.
Held the title work, used the money to prop up the floor plan. Didn't let the bank know the car sold...

If that dumbass had lived poorer for a half dozen years, bought the toys as he
could afford them. Instead of on credit. He would own a damn nice house, all those toys, and be pulling in a million a year now. Instead, he lost it all. And left in his family in a bind while being a guest of the state.


Old folks used money to make money.
Today it's important to show money. Even if the show breaks you

Richest guy I know drives a 20 year old s10 pickup.

He got it after driving another s10 pickup for 20 years.

Guy has more money than I could ever dream of.

You would never know.

My buddy has some big wheelers on his road.

Lots of nice things. What's the big deal right?

Well....after spending all that money on new shiny things....they couldn't afford a big enough tractor to plow themselves out in winter.

Buddy's dad drives several miles with his tractor to plow them out.



Oh well.

My wife and I are happy, we have no debt and I bring in enough to continue happily for the remainder of our lives. We are blessed but not rich. Where everyone else is on that scale is of no concern to me.

Don’t think so, certainly not rich.

My brother in law gets his clothes from the school lost and found. His net worth increased by 1.3 million last year.

Me and the wife made a little over $320k last year. Her car is newest, a 2015 Altima. My personal vehicle is a 2007 F-150 XL longbed. Haven’t had a car payment since 2009.
Built the house in ‘18 for $425k and will have it paid off soon.
Retirement accounts fully funded every year.

I don’t know how people get by on 65k, and still manage to drive $70k vehicles and live in a $400k house.

Sure is nice watching your savings grow and not having to worry about paying off debt.

i super glud my fingers tagether

Would be interesting to see just how much/what stuff a "middle-class American" had in say 1965. Cars, where the price fell in the average cost of cars of the time, number of TV's, number of phones, cottages etc.

Seems like what we feel like we "must have" to be comfortable these days is quite a bit more than feeling like "we've got a good life" back then. Hell there's a thread here where a guy has 5 TV's and is complaining.

I mean - just how much stuff do you need to be happy? Today vs back then?

Feels like we're less happy today - regardless of what our money is buying.

I got all that stuff, but I couldn’t afford a tire for one of your tractors…

Not quite that far back, but say in the early 70s my parents had one land line (but you had to pay for long distance) and one TV that picked up 3 over the air channels. The amount of money that friends pay for digital subscriptions, apps, cell phones, etc. is quite high. Back then I would consider our family (small business owner) to be middle, middle class.

Yes

Their would be signs !

The thing is, to get along with what you have.
Neighbors down the road raised 6 children on 120 acres, nether parent worked off the farm

Bruh, I'm pretty sure you have an old gun that's worth more than our house...

My man!^^^^^^^