{"id":176244,"date":"2026-03-26T17:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176244\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:24:14","slug":"whats-middle-class-in-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176244\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Middle Class in New York City?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader asks:<\/p>\n

I need Ben\u2019s take on the viral NYT story about the \u201cmiddle class\u201d couple who make $500k living in NYC. As a fellow flyover state guy I\u2019m not completely up to speed on what it\u2019s like living as a coastal elitist but these people can\u2019t be serious, right?<\/p>\n

This is the story in The New York Times<\/a> that made a lot of people angry online:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Typically, when you see a story like this you should assume it\u2019s rage bait. The news publications, blogs and newsletters have all learned that one of the best ways to get attention is to piss people off.<\/p>\n

$400k\/year is only enough to live paycheck-to-paycheck in San Francisco!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how AI is going to cause a massive recession and 20% unemployment!<\/p>\n

60% of the population can\u2019t come up with $400 for an emergency expense!<\/p>\n

Stories like this get shared widely because they confirm priors for some people, enrage others and then get dunked on by people who love to debunk outlandish claims. Rage bait actually works.<\/p>\n

However, The New York Times has been doing a series on what it\u2019s like to live in New York City on various levels of income:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I actually thought this piece on the family making $500,000\/year living in NYC was interesting because people don\u2019t often talk about their budgets out in the open like this.<\/p>\n

They spend $4,200\/month on daycare. They rent a one-bedroom apartment for $3,900\/month. They live right across from Cental Park but it\u2019s only 800 square feet, they share a bedroom with their son and have a cramped kitchen with no sunlight.<\/p>\n

However, they enjoy living in the city and are happy to make these trade-offs:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about the possibility of moving to the suburbs, we both really dread it,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Leary said. \u201cI don\u2019t like to drive. Anala doesn\u2019t drive. I feel like we\u2019d be stuck. We really value being able to walk everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

These kinds of decisions are fascinating to me.<\/p>\n

Some people look at these numbers and think these people must be nuts. Others understand that if you want to live in a big city like New York, it costs a lot of money and you don\u2019t get a lot of space.<\/p>\n

This is the part that had people up in arms:\"\"<\/p>\n

They make half a million dollars a year and consider themselves middle class. When rich people describe themselves as middle class that\u2019s bound to set people off and for good reason. This family is not middle-class. They are rich.<\/p>\n

Their income places them in the top 2% of earners in America.\u00a0They are able to\u00a0save $120,000 a year which is more than the median income in all of New York City (around\u00a0 $80k).1<\/p>\n

So why don\u2019t they\u00a0feel\u00a0rich?<\/p>\n

They do live in a high-cost-of-living area. But that\u2019s a choice. They don\u2019t want to live in the suburbs.<\/p>\n

The biggest reason they feel middle-class is because they are surrounded by people who are as rich or richer than they are.<\/p>\n

The Upper West Side<\/a> has a median income that\u2019s much higher than the rest of the city:\"\"<\/p>\n

Around one-third of the residents make $250k or more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated there are now 400,000 millionaires<\/a> in New York City, more than any city in the world. That number is up 45% in the past decade.<\/p>\n

My favorite line from the show Fleishman is in Trouble<\/a> is when Jesse Eisenberg tells Claire Danes, \u201cExcuse me, I make almost $300,000 a year. I am a rich man in every single culture except the 40 stupid square blocks that you insist we live within [Manhattan].\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost no one thinks about wealth in absolute terms these days. Wealth is relative to your peers, your neighbors and the people you see living extravagantly on social media.<\/p>\n

If you make a lot of money but choose to live in the same neighborhood as other wealthy people, that doesn\u2019t make you middle class.<\/p>\n

Some people buy boats. Some people take expensive trips. Some people send their kids to private school. Some people get country club memberships. Some people want to live in walkable cities with lots to do.<\/p>\n

Those are all luxury decisions.<\/p>\n

This is why being rich is not a number; it\u2019s a mindset.<\/p>\n

We touched on this question on this week\u2019s all new Ask the Compound:<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

We also covered questions about how much to save for retirement in your 30s, the reasons you should or shouldn\u2019t own bonds, how military veterans should save their money and how to make up for lost time if you got a late start on saving for retirement.<\/p>\n

Further Reading:
Millionaires & Delusions<\/a><\/p>\n

1And I\u2019m guessing they save even more than that in retirement accounts. Also a good rule of thumb for middle class is around two-thirds to double the median income. So let\u2019s say it\u2019s $160k in NYC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reader asks: I need Ben\u2019s take on the viral NYT story about the \u201cmiddle class\u201d couple who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-176244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}