Reply #11: It's happening. At least the elimination of the middle class part. [View All]

[smirkymonkey]

I live in New York City and my well educated friends and I - many of us with pretty good jobs (although we aren't filty rich investment bankers, hedge fund managers, corporate lawyers, CEO's or trust fund babies) are finding that we are making in the 60k - 100k range and are still scraping by. Yes - scraping by!

I am making almost 75k and I live almost paycheck to paycheck after paying rent, bills, insurance, public transport, and necessities. (I put money into a 401k, and can sometimes put a tiny bit into savings and that's it) I don't shop for clothes or other luxury items such as makeup, perfume, etc. My only luxuries are buying my lunch out occassionally, going out to dinner once or twice a week, getting a Starbucks coffee once a day (maybe 5x week) and going to a movie or getting a massage every once in while. I have a graduate degree and am hugely in debt from it. At this rate I will never pay it off, I can barely keep up with the interest. Many people I know are in the same boat. Decades ago, we would have been affluent, with families, 2 cars and second homes (not that I necessarily want those things) - today, we can barely take care of ourselves.

The American dream is gone. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I know I am a lot better off than a lot of people, but many of us have made a huge investment in our futures by taking out massive educational loans and they haven't paid off. Our salaries just don't keep pace with our expenses. I want to chuck it all and move someplace cheaper, but I know that even though the expenses will be less, so will my salary - it always seems proportional. There doesn't seem to be a place where you can make decent money and find reasonable housing/living prices.