~It had to happen! There's a "High" and a "Low" and now there's "Middle"! I'll go by the definitions of the previous posters and say that "Middle Income" is between $30,000 and $75,000 a year. Personally, we're a one-income household and on the low end of middle. DH's base salary is $33,500 a year but he works alot of OT. He's hoping to gross $40K this year. I'm happy to say that we contribute 12% of our gross pay to our retirement fund and we're on track to spend just $26,000 of our net pay this year. The car loan is $3500 of that. The rest goes to additional debt reduction(car loan and mortgage) and personal savings. We have 4 months of living expenses saved plus our $1K emergency fund. We also have $1000 in a starter fund to help the kids with college costs. It's interesting to read the different income levels and see that we're all working toward similar things. Our challenges are unique but the goal is the same.~

Well dang it I posted on high income and low income....I shoulda posted at middle income. I am so confused and give up.......lololol.

I'm in the middle of the middle income kith. :)

We're sitting happily towards the higher end of the middle income kith...pretty good considering our age.

We are in the middle income area. Dh makes $60,000 a yr. It took us along time to get here.

Another middle income here. I would be able to make it really well on my salary if I didn't have all this debt.

I'm on the low end of Middle Income though. I'm thinking seriously I need to try and make more money. I'm thinking maybe a part time job at least until I get this debt paid down. But then I'd have to give up my free time, I'm not sure that's worth it.

We are in the middle income bracket. Hubby made about $43,000 this year.

Dh made $35,000 this year so I guess we are in this bracket, even though because of the size of our family we are still considered low income.

Right now we are living off of $20,000 and the rest goes towards debt(regular and snowball pymts). We hope to be debt free by the end of 2008 and then all the extra will go towards a house and retirement.

I guess we fall here ;) We are somewhere in the middle for our area. We're living on about 1/2 our income, snowballing the debt to get ahead in life. We are hoping to have all the consumer debt done by next spring. THen really work on the college funds, retirement and mortgage.

We are also in middle income in the lower end.

We are in the middle of the middle income :D But we live in California where the COL is high so technically we're low income LOL

I supposed we are considered middle income. DH makes about 45K a year. I work very part time, only 4-5 hours on Sundays and make about $400 per month. Sometimes I make more, but $400 is the norm. I work for a church and organize child care for them. So if they need child care for something other than Sunday services I will work more.

We used to be very low income. When DH was going to school we made about $12-15K a year. It was tough! We sold pretty much everything we had to pay for his school. He even sold his guitars and amps. If anyone has a guitar playing guy, you will know how hard that was for him. lol He finished school and became a police officer in 2000 and has been going up since then. Starting salary was around 25K so I think he is doing great. He has been promoted many times. I am very proud of him. :)

Of course, a sizable chunk of DH's paycheck goes towards retirment, insurance, and some other stuff. It is about $400-500 per paycheck. Our insurances (health, life, dental, etc) comes to about $150 per check so the rest is retirement.

I'm here! We make around $45,000, between the both of us!

We are in the middle income kith :) Together we make about $60,000 a year. Which is actually high income for the area we live in.

We are middle income here too.

We fall in here. DH makes about 45 a year. Though he does have yet another job interview today where they are required (company policy) to give him at least a 7% raise. So that will be nice if he likes the job.

We are middle income too.

Yay finally a kith for our income, lol. We make about $75K a year (my portion of it is very small), $80K+ last year but I would never consider us as high income. We're neck deep in debt and don't even have a mortgage so our spending on groceries etc. is more like low income. It really stinks that most of the money we make goes towards rent ($1750) and different bills and paying off debt but our situation is getting better. :) DH has huge student loans to pay off and since he was unemploeys for 2 years after 9/11 we maxed out a lot of credit cards just to survive. It's been a great life lesson though, we don't take money for granted anymore.

Count me in! :) We're right in the middle :)

We are in this group too. :)

With dh unemployed, we are in the middle income kith.
Last year we brought in $54,000. This year will probably be quite a bit less because he's been out of work since the first week of February :(
Thank goodness for his military retirement, the social security my older kids get because of their dad (1st dh) dying, and my part time job. But with paying almost $1600/month to CCCS, it's tight.

This is me - at least the income part. I wish I could say the same about your budget numbers - mine are much less responsible. Make about 45K, not buying a car, am paying off debt, go in spurts of following a budget and falling off it.

Well i posted earlier about dh looking at new jobs in this thread.

He took a new one with the same company. A kind of promotion but more of a lateral move with more potential. He starts the 14th and gets a 5% raise then, and then in 6 months at the normal raise cycle he will get another 5% plus what ever the standard raise is usually 3%. It still has a lying in the middle range, but at least gives us a little more flexibility with the mortgage payment and paying down the other debts. Usually the company gives 7% raises up front as a policy but this is a big change in job so they broke it up in two and gave him more.

We are in the middle income bracket. Dh is in the Airforce, and I work part-time at a vets office. We bring home about $40,000 a year together. I can't wait to get rid of out 'stupid' debt so we can actually put our money to better use!

We fall in the middle. Last year we made 50,000. We do not have children.

We are on the low end of the scale. I feel like we are poor sometimes even though I know we are o.k. Although I wish we could put more in savings.

katy

Count us in....we're in the Middle of the Middle!!:biggrin:

I would say we are in the middle of the middle. I am opening back up my daycare so by next year we should fall into the higher end of the middle.

We fall in here. With both of us working FT we make about 63K a year.

We're also on the lower end of the middle income, but we're considered poor because of our family size. We have three children and our MIL also lives with us. My husband is self employed and I work with him.

I guess we in the middle incomers group too. Of course, according to local government, they throw us in with the rest of the higher income class where we really don't fit. I have to say a lot of times I feel quite squashed between the low and high groups. Nothing like being a middle child!

Ditto, ditto, ditto!! Boogimum, I like they way you have explained it!!

We're middle income, also. I work full-time and my DH works part-time. Together we bring home $45,000-$50,000/year. Thank goodness we only have our mortgage as a debt.

--Michelle

That is us too. I don't work outside the home anymore so we are a one income family.

Dh made about $55,000 last year but he got his pay restructured so he will make and is making a nice bit more in commission.

I am really looking froward to seeing the final numbers at tax time.

My goal is to pay off our only credit card in 8 months by hitting it hard @ $400 a month.
Snowballing that $400 cash into the car payment(it is $311 but I pay $335) and doubling my payment to pay off the car note.
Keep adding $300 to savings everymonth. (I set $1000 mini goals at $100 a month and then reap what I sow when I add the $200 more each month when I can. So far I have hit $300 every month)
I also want to start up a camper fund but that is on the back burner.

I have considered working away from home but frankly I feel I am a better helpmate to my dh by running our home, taking care of the kid(s) and pets, paying our bills and debts and being what I am best at--wife and Mama lol!

My boyfriend and I belong here! Although we're not married yet and keep separate accounts, all of our money is shared. We make about $40k/yr combined. We do not have any children yet. I am in the process of getting into nursing school however, so our situation may change within the next 6 months to a year because I will not be able to keep my FT job and keep up with the program. :nerv2:

Another midder here! We're kind of right in the middle of the middle :). We're also a one-income household with me being SAH.

We are in the middle as well

We are on the higher side of the middle. I'm a SAHM and dh is an officer in the USAF.

Hi all. We are middle of middle also! Single income with 1 child. Dh is an engineer and I am getting ready to go to college. Cost of living is very high here, so yeah. We feel poor sometimes too.

We don't have too much debt. Car payment and about $1000 in cc debt. We are looking at buying a house soon, so then we will have to add mortgage to that! Not to mention student loans hahaha.

I am middle of the middle and middle child! Go figure!

We're in the upper end of the middle.

2 Years ago, we qualified for gov't assistance, though.

DH got a big raise to pay for health ins. The company used to pay it, but it started to get so high, they had to let us go private. So he gets a huge raise....but we can't have any of it. :)

Then this summer, we got a loan and bought out DH's Dad...so now we own 100% of the company. I don't know where that will put us (income wise)come tax time.

Our base income is $59000 and some change, but db works a lot of OT, Im not sure how much we make with that figured in. It's so amazing when I think about it, considering we are only 19 and 22. We are making more than our parents ever did. Its a blessing that Im very thankful for. A lot of good things have happened to us this year, last year we were making about $20,000 combined.

We're making $34K while both of us our in school. We have one child and we keep kosher. These are the causes of our biggest monthly expenses (aside from mortgage). Does anyone else here keep kosher? Have saving tips?

We're sitting happily towards the higher end of the middle income kith...pretty good considering our age.

Ditto...I'm very lucky to have married a VERY motivated man :) He's a mechanic so it's not like he makes the most money, but he works hard and is rewarded for it. We're definitely toward the higher end of the middle income 'bracket' lol.

Between DH and I were are at $61,000 right now and will go up to about $88,000 in 2008. However, we've been awful with our blessings. *sigh*

I am in the middle of the middle and by careful budgeting and a frugal lifestyle apply 50% of my income to my debts. I can not wait until they are paid off!!:rcloud:

Man, I'm all over the place. Posted in the high income kith last year. We were on target to make about $100k. Things were rolling, we paid off all our debt, and moved to another state.

With no jobs. And no payments and a big emergency fund, so it was okay. Then dh went back to work, as of this moment we are at the low end of middle income, officially he makes $32k right now.

But, tomorrow I start working part-time, which puts us at about $50k total. In less than a month dh will be done with his 90 days probationary period, and was promised what will have him making $42k, which combined will put us in the $60k range total. Me, I'm part-time now until something full-time opens up, when that happens we'll be at the $75k range. Who knows what 2008 will bring, I feel like we're all over the place. ;)

I am right in the middle of middle. It has been a long road to get here, but with hard work I hope to be inot "high" within 2 more years. The goal, though , is to continue living like "middle" and put that money away for finaancial freedom!

"Middle Income" is between $30,000 and $75,000 a year.
We're in the middle also.

We're in the middle as well. DH makes 61000 before taxes right now. However, with the high cost of living here, it's not as much money as it looks like. :)