Beelzebuddy

29. Would you call yourself/your family “middle class?”

I grew up in what I thought was a lower middle class family, although looking back I realized we were really upper lower class.  I still feel that I am lower to mid middle class.  However, in trying to answer this question I used the calculator at the Pew Research center (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/11/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/).

According to the calculator, I am in the upper income tier.  This is difficult to believe, as so many friends have higher incomes.  I live in a modest house, in a semi-rural area, in a school district that is middling at best.  I drive a entry-level sedan that is a few years old – it is my first car with a sunroof, and I love the car!  Unlike so many others I know, I have never been given money by my grandparents, or parents.  I graduated college with several years of student loans – which are now paid in full, and worked the entire time I was in college.  The only foreign county I’ve been to is Canada.  I don’t have much money in the bank.  The is no fine china, or silverware that needs to be polished, in my house.  I went to public school, and a public college. I’ve never traveled anywhere for Spring Break. How can this be any variation of upper income?