If the definition of upper class is top 1%, then upper class is accurate, but maybe the top 1% threshold in the bay area is higher than you think?
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-salary-of-the-top-earners...
http://gis.mtc.ca.gov/home/images/motm/motm212.pdf
I made the argument on another comment that most "rich" people still work for a living, it seems you're a good example of that.
And yeah, having done it, I know first hand how you can be rich on paper, but live in the bay and feel like a college student.
Don't know if it makes you feel any better, but roughly 99% of people make less money than you do, and also don't feel rich and will also be hosed if they lose jobs. ;)
That's like saying you own a modest house in Beverly Hills and have a mortgage. Well, that's upper class!
I'm curious, what are your main expenses?
Living in the Bay area?
I am guessing they are are going by national numbers rather than regional.
In SF household income percentiles are these: Top 5%: $349,693 Top 1%: $558,046
$100 in food daily ~ $36k
$500 weekly domestic help ~ $25k
$500 monthly utilities ~ $6k
$2k monthly transportation ~ $24k
$2k monthly misc ~ $24k
$10,000 monthly mortgage ~ $120k
Oh, I guess I forgot savings. Doh! I'd aim for savings about 10% annual pre-tax income for a household bringing in $400k+ pre-tax. I'm not sure how much of the mortgage principal payments I'd count towards that amount.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_Unit...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_Unite...
We both work extremely hard, from 9-10 hrs a day in the office and 2-3 hrs at night, most nights. We barely have time to see the kids during the week, and the weekends are filled assuaging our guilt by spending it with them, unless we have to work.
We have a modest house in the SF Bay Area, with an unmodest mortgage, and a savings that is miniscule compared to our costs and isn't growing. I have my Honda Accord that I paid off years ago, and my wife leases a Lexus SUV. We are the prototypical house-poor Bay Area family, and if one of us loses our job, we're pretty fucked. Neither of us has any sort of insurance besides whatever is provided by our companies.
The two "luxuries" we have are a weekly house cleaner, and a top notch babysitter once a week, which is why I think upper middle class is apt.
We don't feel "upper class", and we definitely don't feel rich. We know rich people, though, with live-in nannies, rented out Gary Dankos for special events, got box suites at the Super Bowl, etc.