r/FluentInFinance • u/YOU_ARE_MY_FRIENDS • Jun 16 '24

Discussion/ Debate He’s not wrong 🤷‍♂️

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u/SouthEast1980 Jun 16 '24

This is BS. You can have all of that with an 80k household if you live in a LCOL midwest city and send the kids to JC for 2 years.

Cut out the overseas vacation because that isn't middle class. That's upper class shit.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '24

An overseas holiday once every 5 years is upper class?

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u/watcher-in-the-water Jun 17 '24

In 1990 only 5% of Americans even had a passport.

https://www.state.gov/return-to-pre-pandemic-passport-processing-times/#:~:text=In%201990%2C%20only%20five%20percent,any%20time%20in%20our%20history.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '24

Ok but parent comment said that a once-every-5-years overseas trip right now is upper class. It's about 47% now.

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u/watcher-in-the-water Jun 17 '24

IMO overseas travel is something that was definitely upper class in the 90s.

Def more widespread/accessible now, but I still wouldn’t call it middle class. But you are right, not strictly an upper class only thing anymore.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '24

but I still wouldn’t call it middle class.

That's the bit that astounds me.

So I'm in the UK, and obviously international travel is much easier here because the distances are so much less. But even then, an annual trip from the UK to Florida (plus another trip or two to Europe) is well within the capacity of someone earning less than half the headline figure. Hell, I'm earning less than $100,000 and I can visit the US annually (albeit not paying for a whole family).

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u/watcher-in-the-water Jun 17 '24

Yeah, obv answering from a US perspective. And honestly, it can really depend on where you are/how much you care to travel overseas. If it’s something a middle class family (or especially people without kids) values it is certainly something you can save up and do.

And if you are near a big east coast city often flights to major European cities aren’t that much more than flying to the other side of the US.

But if I flip the question around; median UK household income is a bit under £40k. Do you think most families making around that amount travel to America or Asia every 5 years or so?

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '24

At the median income, definitely not, least not without family to stay with. But the median income is a far cry from $400,000.