> That $250k couple likely has little or nothing to their name. I don't even make half that and I have six figures in savings. A $250k/year DINK couple should

> That $250k couple likely has little or nothing to their name. I don't even make half that and I have six figures in savings. A $250k/year DINK couple should most definitely have very much to their name. The only reason people could ever trick themselves into thinking $250k is merely middle class is because they assume that one simply must own a huge home to be middle class. This is a notion which I challenge. The middle class has never predominantly owned homes in major cities. The vast stretches of middle America have long been and continue to be the haven of the middle class, and this DINK couple should be able to buy a ranch home in that haven for cash. This "middle class" family with the $2M home and the $250k income could sell that home, move to middle America, get a ranch home for < $200k with $1.8M left over, and retire, never working again. They probably have investments and retirement savings on top of the home, but even completely ignoring that they could get a $70k annual income just off 4% of that $1.8M. That already puts their passive retirement income above the median HHI in the US. And that's ignoring social security, which when they come of age soon they'll be able to draw at the maximum possible amount. They're not going to do that, though, because they enjoy the power, status, and income of living in the heart of one of the nation's richest and most powerful industries and working for its top companies. They paint themselves as victims, like they're doomed to live in a horrid one-story home. They chose that. They prefer the perks of living where they are over the perk of having a huge house in a cheaper part of the country. The fact that they were even able to make that choice makes them not middle class. Whether they're "upper class" is another discussion. One can easily see various tiers in the upper class, with this family occupying the lowest one and billionaires on the highest rung. You'd need to throw in political luminaries somewhere as well -- the President should probably get on the highest rung even if he's not a billionaire, for instance.