I've had the experiences of: 1. being on the high end of poor while being oblivious and in a socially highbrow environment (STEM grad school, $26k/yr salary, h

I've had the experiences of: 1. being on the high end of poor while being oblivious and in a socially highbrow environment (STEM grad school, $26k/yr salary, high cost-of-living city). I also felt privileged because i lived in a "foreign postdoc ghetto" where my neighbors were a single family on a postdoc salary (probably somewhere between 27-30k) living in a one-bedroom with two kids. 2. the experience of being "service-collar" middle-class while having peers that have mostly emerged from being poor (Lyft driver, $56k/yr earnings) Now I'm a dev, on the lower end of the pay scale for bay area devs but one thing is I'm pretty fearless about winding up poor again because I know I can hack it and still live happily. Now I'm a dev, probably on the lower end of the spectrum for the bay area