re: Do most people finance significant portions of their lifestyles?

I don’t read good sometimes

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Well let's say you are a family of 4 and making 115k or above, that puts you squarely in upper middle class. Even if you making 100k with 2 kids, still middle class.

As far as how do you make it with that, well you don't go buy a 300k+ house for starters. You don't pay for private school and live in the suburbs with good schools instead. If you do choice private school, you accept the drastic lifestyle changes 10-20k after taxes does to you. Its a choice though.

Your don't have 2 new cars, or if you do you keep one for a long time so you eventually only have one note at a time.

You get cheap or no cable. I.e. Netflix and an espn subscription and over the air antenna.

You don't go to dinner but once a week max and date night is reserved for once a month.

You cut the expensive extracurricular activities. I.e. free baseball or a travel team that isn't very much. I.e. have the daughter, if you have one, choose dancing or gym or softball. Can't have it all.

No hunting camp, hunt public land only and don't invest much money. Aluminum boat only for fishing. No toys.

You don't go buy new phones. You buy lightly used phones and kids don't get a plan until high school. They can use wifi messaging and calling until then.

Essentially you need to live middle class, not upper middle or wealthy.

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goddamn you just described my life almost exactly

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I don’t read good sometime

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Na...I think you are like most people and kind of have a skewed view of the so called golden years. Its 2020 and all the tech advances are great, but for all of the success the average person spends more on those types of items compared to the past in terms of % of salary.

For example cable, in 1995 the average person. Paid $22.35, under $10 in 1985. Granted there were not nearly as many channels, but now the average person pays $103. This could be cut back dramatically to 1995 cost simply with an over the air antenna, Netflix, prime and espn subscriptions.

Internet was not a thing in 1980s, and not average cost is over $60/month with many paying much more.

Cell phones were not a thing and the average phone bill was less than $20 back then. So you have to not go crazy here.

My middle class and lower families had one car or a nice car and a work vehicle. Might now be possible now a days, but got to keep it to one note if at all possible.

Average home size in 1980 was 1750 SF. Its over 2700SF now. Median single family home price in LA rose from 85k in 1980 to 172k in 2020. Median cost is well below inflation which would put 85k worth about 265ish in 2020 dollars. But the difference is everyone doesn't want a median house and average top twin home in LA is pushing 300k on average.

Most families back in 1980 took a vacation maybe once a year. Thats at most and it was a car ride. Big difference from today.

I think you get the picture. We have added a shite ton of expense through adding tech services, bigger homes, nicer and more cars, more vacations, more extracurricular activities.

All of that while the tech centered economy is leaving the lower uneducated class behind. Yes that class is shrinking but those that are remaining are continuing to see that their wage increases do not keep up with the upper middle and wealthy classes.

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While I do agree that in general it seems wages have been stagnant, they have gone up 32% on average in the last 3 decades. I do recognize that's just over 1% per year

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Lol what? A 32% increase over 30 years is 0.93% annual increase.

My dad bought a house in the 90's for $40k. That same house today is listed for $185k... Things are STUPID expensive these days. From 1990 to 2020 the dollar has halved in value, nothing to show near what the housing market has done.

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32% increase over 30 years is 0.93% annual increase.

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Not quite, before you critize someone, you might want to learn basic math.

Its 32/30 not the other way around. If you have a 32% increase over 30 years you divide 32 by 30. So just over 1% per year.

And you are the perfect example of why companies require a formal education now, you can't even do basic math but want to critize.

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Food for thought, Dave Ramsey once said, "When you take out that credit card to buy a Big Mac, and you don't pay off the balance, you just financed that burger."
this is fricking stupid

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Is it? If you are carrying a balance on a credit card and only use it to dine out, you are financing those cheeseburgers, pizza, etc.

Dave Ramsey has some good advice and many people should follow it. However his hatred of credit cards is way off. If you pay off your balance in full every month you can get some good cash back. So ok I used a credit card to buy a big mac, but that big mac got me some points, add that on top of the other points I get I can fly free, get free nights in a hotel, get priority access for reduced cost or free, and so many other perks.