10/14/2005

The American Dream

Everyone has their own version of the American dream. Forbes recently did some research to see just how much it would cost to live the upper-middleclass American dream. The article makes many assumptions of what the American dream is including a vacation home, 2 nice cars, family of 4, a kid in college, ect. So what does it cost to live this lifestyle, only an income of $370,000 in California or around $200,000 in Montana. These numbers surprised me a bit as I thought low six figures was plenty to live large. I guess if someone wants to live the American dream, a typical 40hr a week job will not due.

1 comment:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Maddy's comments for spelling errors. I'll let Elijah slide for at least being attentive.

That seems kind of on the high side to me ... but maybe not.

I'm guessing that they're making some assumptions that aren't typical. For example, the 80th percentile (the lower cutoff for "rich") in adjusted gross income in the U.S. is about $75K. That's substantially less than the $200K in Montana.

So, if you go and check the article, those folks are living pretty large - home in Brentwood, second home in Lake Tahoe, a BMW and a Lexus, kids in private schools and so on. Really ... just about like no one you've ever met.