This is a great interactive quiz sent to me by G via email (thanks!)
Here’s how I ended up ranking:
Click on the image to make it larger.
On average, I guess I am Upper Middle class.
OCCUPATION
I chose something in Business but an Analyst isn’t exactly my job description… but it’s the closest one listed.
I don’t consider it to be a high prestige job either! 🙂
I guess surgeons, lawyers and executives must rank in the Top Fifth?
DEGREE
A bachelor’s degree is Top Fifth? Wow. I had no idea.
It seemed to me, like everyone around me went to get their undergrad, but perhaps it’s because I was in the circles of families who send their kids there, so it felt normal.
INCOME
My income also varies from year to year. I earned $140,000 in one year, but then $0 in the next, and now am sitting at $35,000 or so with the rest of the year to go.
I have no idea what I really earn.
I need more data over 5-10 years before I can give a good average salary.
So I chose $90,000 which is a very competitive rate if I decided to join a company, and that’s considered Top Fifth.
NET WORTH
My net worth is sitting over $80,000 on average now, but it drops slowly if I don’t work.
CONCLUSION
Interesting, but not definitive for me.
I don’t feel like I am in the upper middle class range, much less “Top Fifth”, but I suppose based on the factors above, I am up there.
It’s strange for me to feel and think that.
But perhaps it’s because I’ve been comparing myself to unrealistic ideals.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
FB, is there a link to the interactive quiz? “Career” is hard to gauge on my own.
I linked to it but I think it’s gone now. I think the quiz said if you make over $100k a year you’re in the upper echelon, then $50 – $75 and so on
I've fairly average, but I'm young and just starting out I guess. Once I complete university I seem to be highly above average :S
My recent post Studies and being above the rest
I'm a little late on this, but I ranked much much higher than I expected.
My job puts (Biological scientist) puts me at 79% "prestige", my Master's degree is 97th percentile (I guess I kind of cheated since I'm not actually done this degree). My income was decidedly middle class — but I'm a student! It's probably only ever going to increase from here! And my wealth was low, 25th percentile (damn student loans).
I ranked 64% overall. I think 3 years from now after I've accumulated more wealth and am potentially working (if I pursue PhD I'll be 99th education though holla!!) I'll be solidly upper middle class.
It's kind of weird to see this ranking because I've always kind of envisioned myself as very LOW on the wealth/class scale. I'm kind of suprised how easy it is to become upper middle class. Seriously when I get married and we combine assets, it's just going to be flat out upper class. How come that's so easy? I guess I always thought it was more difficult to be "rich".
My recent post Minimalist closet- I have enough shirts
I think if we\’re in a social bubble, then we tend to think people who are like us, are the norm, when in fact, the majority of people are not like us.
It can be hard to see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
Since I'm not working and have no income, suddenly I'm low class in two categories and in the upper fifth in the other two. . .does that make me middle class? hah! And when I was employed . . . was I upper class? (double hah!).
Class is such a strange distinction.
Hey,
I'm average right now, but mostly because of the income. I have an average job, but am also working on building a couple of businesses. When I've reached my goals for those, I'll be higher up. The journey and the learning is what I'm more focused on right now, knowing that the income and business rewards will come later.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the quiz. Thought it was pretty neat.
Talk soon,
Guy
I'm considered by the scale to be upper middle class. ( Based on the job I'm doing right now and the salary), but If I do with my normal job ,I'm on a leave from, I'd be considered lower middle class. I've decide to be average middle class!
I feel comfortable calling myself average middle class as well.
It’s quite strange for me to see them classify me as otherwise…
I'm in the top fifth for all measurements, but I'm definitely a middle class kind of guy 🙂
I think it's a bit "age bias" too, older people are going to have a lot more wealth, but perhaps not a degree. So maybe it does equal out a bit…
Still, I guess it's better than nothing…
Personally, I couldn’t care less about who has a degree or not. There are people with degrees who aren’t as successful as those without.
I just think it’s interesting that it’s one of the factors to determine a person’s status, considering that some might have made a choice NOT to pursue a bachelor’s degree because of the prohibitive debt.
In terms of most of these, I'm upper middle or top fifth. Too bad I'm still white trash! 😉
LOL!
I'm pretty average. Of course, my position title wasn't quite on there so I chose Public Relations Specialist, which is apparently not that prestigious – which I disagree with a little because those jobs are so competitive to get!
I think in the U.S., and probably Canada, too, there's this feeling that everyone is middle class — well, at least us and everyone we know is "us". There is very little talk about "working class" or "upper class". Politicians rarely mentioned either. I listened to the U.S. presidential debates last election and "middle class" got mentioned, but only middle class. Everyone thinks they are middle class. And some people will even say that we live in a class-less society. That's far from the case.
I grew up among working class people and knew some people who were just plain poor (i.e. no reliable running water, large holes in the floor of their trailers). I think many of us also thought we were middle class, but when I was finally around real middle class people it was actually pretty shocking. It was shocking because 1. I didn't know so many people actually lived like that, and 2. they also seemed completely oblivious to how many people didn't live like them. I remember in college hearing people talking about how "Well, those people are poor because they're lazy. They just didn't want to go to college like the rest of us." But where I grew up, college wasn't even something that was mentioned much, even in school. People talked about going into the military far more than going to college. College was only really pushed on the top students who could get big scholarships, and I remember how much I had to push to find out information about college requirements in time. Sometimes it seemed that no one knew what was involved in actually getting into college. Good, smart, hardworking people fell through the cracks.
And then there were just the facts of everyday life, especially living in a rural area. There were very few businesses in the area, so very few choices for shopping or work. Hardly anything was in walking distance. There was no public transportation. In my own family I have a cousin who has been trying to go to a community college but had to stop because his vehicle broke and he didn't have the money to fix it and he had a hard time finding any work without a vehicle. That's what it means to be working class — to be just a small emergency away from financial disaster, the kind of small emergencies that middle class people see as merely an inconvenience but which keep working class people from getting out of the hole.
Agreed with your comment.
It’s based on circumstances as well.
I like the definition you drew out about working class being one pay cheque away from a financial disaster.
Makes me wonder if “upper class” people can be classed as “working class” by that definition.
I think, for the most part, "upper" class (and even "middle" class) people have more to fall back on, even if their income is cut off for some reason, i.e. education, status (including connections), net worth, and so on. Those things help one get back in the game, so to speak.
Perhaps that is what also differentiates people who are working class and those people who really are more middle class, but able to live on a typically working class income by choice. The other things give them more choices.
As a college professor, I have a high status, lowish salary job. That is because I do not work at a prestigious institution. And I am in the humanities.
I know in Australia, you're initially seen as lower class if you don't go to uni (you can work your way up without one, of course). It's pretty much a middle class, upwards, thing to do. I wouldn't call it upper class, but perhaps that's because in Australia we've got a pretty good post-paid system of interest-free government loans that you pay once you earn over $40,000~
I think this is definitely skewed towards America. In Canada, tuition isn’t as expensive as I’ve heard it to be in the U.S.
Anyone can get a general bachelor’s paying $5k a year in tuition + books. But the type of bachelor’s and whether you go into a specialized degree/school or not, changes the costs.