WTF?

Geez.

I do a google search for "Middle Class Salary" and rather than finding interesting facts on WHAT middle class is, I find a bunch of disturbing facts about what PROBLEMS face the middle class. Not what I needed right now what with being stressed about money already.

So, where I work at a 15-20 employee company, December brings with it a yearly insurance shuffle. Last year we were more or less forced into paying $150 more for insurance a month to keep what we had. Or moving to a new HSA plan which comes with a $2200 deductible that must be met before ANYTHING is paid by the insurance. We went with the HSA plan. If that wasn't a kick in the pants, this year the dental plan is being relegated to opt-in only and 100% paid for by the employee. This leaves me personally with around $110 more a month to get family coverage that I'm paying out. So in the last 2 years my personal health coverage (well, family, but I'm paying for all of it) has gone up by roughly $2000. If we hit our deductible this next year (very unlikely, only hit it last year by having a kid) we will be looking at $3400 alone, not to mention 50% of any real dental work. Plus glasses probably this next year for myself and my wife, and who knows what else that might be unexpected. And this after I hit my 5 year mark at the company where "Insurance is 100% paid for". I know they are not directly responsible but.... yeesh.

I swear, the insurance companies have to be making money hand over fist. I hear they made record profits last year and that in the past few years the rates (each year) have gone up THREE TIMES as much as the standard of living.

This rant all comes from the search above, which comes from a conversation I had with a co-worker today about what is really middle class. Apparently middle class according to "the numbers" is household income between 35,000 a year and 80,000 a year. Give or take a few thousand depending on who you ask. That puts me pretty much just above the middle line. My co-worker on the top end of the first third. And that's a pretty large cross-section. I think the exact middle as like $43,000 and change. It's in the first 2 pages of the search linked above if you don't believe me.

We want my wife to be able to stay at home and raise the kids. I wonder if that will last as long as I'd like. I pray it does.

Here's an article that scares the hell out of me.

And here are a couple of others. One more for punctuation.

It sure would be nice to have a savings account that would get me past a month out of work.

I better go to bed. Bleh.