Is this a (financially) middle class household these days or not?

[Yealp]

I don’t think so, my best friend thinks it’s completely middle class.

Income after tax per month 5,200
Household one adult and one dc
Mortgage payment 1k a month, equity 350k (4 bed detached)

Gracious me - what is “under class”? Surely that’s reserved for criminals!

Class isn’t about books and chips n gravy (yum).

Dh and I grew up in low income families, my df was (mainly) unemployed and on the dole and dh’s df was a builder who learnt his trade through a Jobcentre scheme and ended up running his own business. Our DM’s were housewives. So we are WC. But:

DH is very bright and was the first of his family to go to uni. Started his own business in his 20’s. I left school at 16 and worked in offices (where I met dh) until I became a sahm with our 3rd child. By this time dh’s internet business had taken off and we bought our first house together for almost one million in 2005. Our DCs have had a very middle class lifestyle of private school, luxurious holidays etc but we have always tried to install a work ethic in them - they are all bright, two have 2:1 degrees already and one of them is at Bristol University and looks set to get a 1st. They all have expensive hobbies and rich friends and sometimes holiday in very expensive places. We also took them to Haven a few times when they were little bc we wanted them to enjoy the kind of holidays we loved as kids (and which they have very fond memories of)
I didn’t go to university but consider myself better educated than most as I’m always learning and curious about new things and I read widely. I have some pretty niche interests that require time and money. Now the dc’s are older I do charity work. I don’t necessarily think having a degree is a sign of intelligence personally, and I know quite a few rather dim people who have one! I wish I’d gone to university but life didn’t pan out that way and my family were skint.

It’s complicated. We live in a very wealthy area and dh and I often laugh about some of the bourgeois behaviour of Hyacinth Bucket types around here. You can tell they can’t make us out at all bc we don’t hang out at the tennis club or polish our cars at the weekend etc. 😂 I love living here though as it’s so safe. I could go for a walk alone at 1am and feel safe - and when you’ve lived where I grew up that’s something il never take for granted.

We are lucky enough to not have a mortgage. We employ people. We are still WC.

I dress very nicely and probably look quite posh and people are always surprised when I speak to hear a broad accent. I usually get a double take and “where are you from”? kind of response to meeting new people.

It doesn’t matter what “class” you are - just be yourself and don’t try to be something you’re not!

I don’t actually remember what most of his jobs were. The rent must of been paid through housing benefit which I know makes me sound underclass but I have a really posh accent and growing up mother was always in the middle of some orthorexic diet craze and had extensive disdain for potatoe smiley face eating people which is apparently a middle class trait.

According to what I read on other threads I’m either under class or middle class. Between those two would be working class but I have nothing in common at all with any of the working class interests and things. So yes pretty confusing

If you’re one adult and one child you could have a smaller house with the mortgage paid off (or paid off sooner anyway).

What do you mean Underclass?! 😂

If you mean working class that’s rather offensive!

Regardless of "class" that's evidently a very well paid job and a relatively small mortgage on a decent sized house. This sounds like a very comfortable person to me.

Class has little to do with income. They are two separate things.

It's a tiny mortgage payment.
And a high income for a single person.
And a ton of equity.
So thia person is very comfortable compared to the majority of the population.

I’m not trying to offend anyone, read somewhere under class have teen pregnancies and I was pregnant with my dc at 15 so just talking about myself here. Underclass is under working class

You are working class, it sounds like your mother had aspirations for being middle class but you are working class. Having middle class hobbies and interests doesn’t make you middle class. If you were boarder line middle class/working class maybe they might tip you one way or the other but you are clearly working class. My husband is also working class and his parents also had aspirations and he has middle class hobbies and interests but he is still working class.

Most people don't have £3k disposable income.

It absolutely is...but you can obviously pay it comfortably. £3000 disposable after bills?! That's huge!

This is a middle income .
Income has nothing to do with class.
I suspect your best friend is working class -aspiring middle class perhaps.
But class is not and has never been income based.

Not when the take home is over 5k

The mumsnet obsession about class never fails to baffle me. Who gives a fuck if your mum worked down the mines, or you have a million dollar mortgage, or you keep ferrets, or went to public school! It doesn’t matter, why the endless rehashing of it?

I think you might be suggesting it’s higher than middle class?

I’m not sure what you’ve been reading there but it was absolute drivel my love..

Don’t refer to yourself as underclass!

As a child I thought I was well off because I had a bigger house than all my friends, tidier too although obviously it costs nothing to clean your house but you know how kids think.
As a young adult I realised there were people who grew up a lot richer than me.
But then I discovered mumsnet! There’s probably 1000 threads about middle vs working class personality traits and hobbies 😂 confusion reigned again. Are you telling me the avocados on toast was meaningless

I went to school with a boy who kept ferrets down his trousers 😂

Yes, if you work for a living you are working class imo. My dad always used to say “you don’t become an aristocrat by earning more money.”

You know fine well it is. I earn that over 3 months as a carer

Meaningless question.

There is no connection between class and money.

I’m sure the avocados on toast secured you a middle class husband so you could have middle class children so not in vein 😂😂😂

laughs in Boden

With all kindness, does it matter? You’ve said you have a ‘relatively posh’ accent, then a ‘really posh’ accent, think housing benefit and young parenthood is ‘underclass’ but that you’d be working class if you liked football? I can’t tell if you’re on a wind up or really this self-obsessed. Read a book, figure it out.

I take home £80,000 per month. Am I poor?