re: American middle class families must really not be saving any money.

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You do you. Don’t worry about anyone else’s business.

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Comparison is the thief of joy.

Middle class is actually not even 100k. For Louisiana middle class is 75k as a household. But I agree how do they survive. I have a friend who’s household income is 100k. They bought a 350k house a year ago but mortgage is 2500 a month. That’s almost half their monthly income and they have 2 car payments.

It's a royal pain in the arse no matter how you slice it. I'm a high earner, 180k or so with bonus. With that comes sacrifices. My wife quit her job making 70k a year because I work 60-70 hours a week and it was necessary to manage the kids schedules.

We are fairly frugal, we only dine out once a week for a family treat but with a family of 5 that's 100+ at any restaurant. Groceries are 300 a week easily.

Bills are paid on time, and we throw some back into savings but it's not what it should be. Both our vehicles are paid off as well.

I think I make OK money and so does my fiancé and we save a good bit and I legit don’t know how people are doing this. Even if I saved nothing I don’t feel like it would be enough to cover all this stuff. I see it too. I assume these people all make double solid six figure incomes but that can’t possibly be possible right?

So how are people buying this stuff? Financing and credit?

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So how are people buying this stuff?

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Sometimes I look at our household income and it shows we are top 15-20% (not ballers) and I look around and think that there must be a lot of people that are stretched super thin if that's accurate.

I hear you, according to “them” I’m supposed to be rich

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A plant operator if he lives at the plant might make $130K

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Even if this were true, which it isn’t, a family with a couple kids where both parents work and pulling down ~180K/yr can easily afford all the shite in your OP and have extra to put into savings

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American middle class families must really not be saving any money.

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100% man. money goes in, money goes out. Everyone trying to live like they make $200k/yr. And scrapping up just enough each month to spend a week on 30A in July

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ETA: I’m guessing a lot of folks haven’t been paying student loans with the pause and will be fricked when they kick back in. I’ve been paying every month so I didn’t get a false sense of security

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My wife and I are on pace for our best year yet after some rough years to begin our marriage paying off debt.

We're unsecured debt free.

I haven't paid one dollar on student loans. It will probably hurt my but hell with the government. I'll have them paid off by retirement.

I budget the student loan into our budget reserves. It's accounted for and just sits there.

We will be paying $1500/mo in daycare, two car notes, etc. We max retirement for both of us.

We're blessed and probably upper middle class I suppose. We do really well in south LA but at times it doesn't feel like it. Most of my friends make way way more.

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A comfortable retirement for most of the middle class is really only a couple of generations old, and for the most part it will be gone with Gen X.

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You're not wrong. That being said, "The Middle Class" is a relatively new concept as well. It wasn't until, Henry Ford, came along that the average worker could even afford, "Nice Things."