Depending on which class you're trying to signal as, buying the latest iPhone could do the opposite of what's intended. For the most part class signaling on th

Depending on which class you're trying to signal as, buying the latest iPhone could do the opposite of what's intended. For the most part class signaling on the easier end (looks, mostly) has more to do with choices than outright spending. It's why a relatively poor college professor on the East coast can still look "upper middle". Their clothes may be a bit worn, some hand-me-downs, some thrifted, but they're the right clothes. Swapping the legible t-shirt & hoodie for a cotton button-up and wool cardigan or a blazer and the $100-150 sneakers for $100-150 (clearance, seconds, or used) leather loafers will do a lot more to signal higher class than an iPhone, and none of those clothes need look new—making the mistake of spending money on stuff like electronics or boldly-branded expensive clothes while getting other things very wrong is a class marker, but not one most would intentionally choose to display if they understood it. [EDIT] in short, always having new phones and video game consoles and such only signals wealth & higher status to poor people—absent other markers of higher class they'll actual read as low class to everyone else.