that article had me face-palming so many times. Maybe people should stop worrying about how much they need to spend to appear to be in a certain "class" and instead just stop spending money to keep up with the Joneses. If you can't responsibly support a (non-west-coast/NYC) family on $130k then you just suck with money. Christ if you can't even come up with an extra $400/month as someone with a middle class income wtf are you even doing? Your bank probably followed the 34% rule if you bought a house, meaning you just took on a ton more debt after securing the biggest mortgage you could...