Background: I am a millennial, born 1988, graduated HS 2006, and graduated college in 2010. I hate to say it, because I really did have a nice childhood in a great time to be a kid -- but those of you who were born in 88' can probably relate -- our adulthood began at a crappy time to go into adulthood. The 2008 crash, 2009-10 recession and horrible job market, Covid, terrible inflation since then, and the general societal sense of despair that has been prevalent throughout it all.

We're in our 30s and 40s now, which should be our peak productive (read: earning) years. I feel like the generation before us came of age during the easiest time in history to make money, while the one below us hasn't really been adults long enough to expect much from them yet.

I'm married, two young kids, household income $88,000 in a LCOL area. If you had described my situation to 2006 me, I would've thought life would've looked a whole lot better with those stats. My wife and I both have bachelor's degrees. Like many of you, we "did everything we were told we had to do in order to have the good life." Yet, I can tell you that it's a constant struggle. I can't even envision a life beyond the next paycheck. Every month, it's terrifying how close we come to going over the cliff -- and we do not live lavishly by any means. My kids have never been on a vacation for any more than one night away. Our cars have 100K miles on them. Our 1,300 sq. ft house needs work.

I hesitate to put a number on it, because I'm aware that $60-110K looks a whole lot different in San Francisco than in Toad Suck, AR. But, I've done the math for my family's situation and $110K is more or less the minimum we'd have to make to have some sense of breathing room. To truly be able to fund everything, plus save, invest, and donate generously...$150-160K is more like it.

But sometimes, I feel like those of us in that range are in the "no man's land" of American society. Doing too well for the soup kitchen, not doing well enough to be in the country club. I don't know what to call it. By every technical definition, we're the middlest middle class that ever middle classed, yet it feels like anything but:

• You have decent jobs, but not elite level jobs. (Side note: A merely "decent" job was plenty enough for a middle class lifestyle not long ago....)
• Your family isn't starving (and in the grand scheme of history and the world today, admittedly, that's not nothing!). But you certainly don't have enough at the end of the month to take on any big projects. "Surviving...but not thriving" sums it up.
• You buy groceries from Walmart or Aldi. Your kids' clothes come from places like Kohl's or TJ Maxx. Your cars have a little age on them. If you get a vacation, it's usually something low key and fairly local.
• You make too much to be eligible for any government assistance, yet not enough to truly join the middle class economy. Grocery prices hit our group particularly hard: Ineligible for SNAP benefits, yet not rich enough to go grocery shopping and not even care what the bill is.
• You make just enough to get hit with a decent amount of taxes, but not so much that taxes are an afterthought.
• The poor look at you with envy and a sneer: "What do YOU have to complain about?" But the upper middle class and rich look down on you.
• If you weren't in a position to buy a home when rates were low, you're SOL now.
• You have a little bit saved for the future, but you're not even close to maxing out your 401k.

Anyway, you get the picture. It's tough out there for us. What we all thought of as middle class in the 90s -- today, that takes an upper middle class income to pull off. We're in economic purgatory.

Apologies if I rambled a bit, just some shower thoughts that I needed to get out.

EDIT: To clarify, I do not live in Toad Suck, AR - though that is a real place. I was just using that as a name for a generic, middle-of-nowhere, LCOL place in the US. lol.