(attached link) he just purchased for $1.45 million.... all 1,900 square feet of it and you think, "holy shit, look at this place, this guy must be loaded". No, you don't think that, because it looks like a house that might go for $250K in Richmond. It's a nice house, and there's nothing wrong with 1,900 square feet, I did it when I lived in DC, but no one making $100K in a place like Richmond would look at that house and think, damn, hopefully I can be "rich" some day so I too can live like this.
The point is that someone making $400K in a place like San Jose probably spends 50% or more of their take home pay on a fairly modest house, drives a honda accord or toyota camry, sends their kids to public schools, flies coach class when they travel, etc. In other words, their lifestyle looks and feels very similar to someone living in richmond making $100-$150K. I'm not asking you to feel sorry for this guy, but his lifestyle is much closer to upper middle class than it is to the hedge fund guys lifestyle. ( I don't know why that concept is so hard to get.
Yes, I have a bit of a warped perspective living in Boca, but that's sort of my point. I'm surrounded by hedge fund guys and trust fund babies who live in 10K+ square foot homes, drive bentley's and ferraris, fly in private jets.... i.e. really fucking rich. So the guy living in a 1,900 square foot home, driving a honda accord and sending his kids to public school, well it doesn't feel very rich at all to me by comparison.
If you're arguing he's "upper class", you'll get no argument from me. But "rich" to me implies a level of financial freedom / independence that I promise you no one making $400K in salary in a place like San Jose, SFO, NYC, or DC feels. Maybe I'm wrong, and Boca has made me more out of touch than I realize, but I think if you surveyed most americans, showed them that house and asked if the person that lived there was rich, poor or middle class, I'd bet the most common response would be middle class.
[Post edited by BocaHoo91 at 12/17/2017 7:06PM]
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