The Wealthy "Average Joe": Why America's Upper Middle Class Feels Stretched (and How to Fix It)
If you ran into Randy Shilling at a grocery store in Humble, Texas, you wouldn’t look twice. He’s a petroleum engineer who graduated from Texas A&M and spent the first decade of his career worrying about whether he could afford a summer vacation. He views himself, in his own words, as an "average Joe."
But there is a glitch in Randy’s self-perception. Randy has $3 million in retirement savings and lives on a golf course. In any other era of human history, a man with $3 million is not an "average Joe." He is a local king.
The "Great Migration" of the American Middle Class
As Rachel Louise Ensign recently reported for the Wall Street Journal, Randy is the new face of a massive, quiet structural shift in the American landscape. We are witnessing the "Great Migration" of the middle class. Since 1979, the "upper middle class", defined as families of three earning between $133,000 and $400,000, has tripled, growing from 10% of the population to 31%. The middle of the bell curve is hollowing out, but not because everyone is getting poorer. It’s because a huge chunk of the country is accidentally becoming rich.
The $1,700 Bassinet Paradox: High Income vs. High Anxiety
The math of this new affluence is fascinating. If you have a college degree and a working spouse, you have an 80% chance of landing in this new "upper" bracket. You are the person the economy is now built for: the person buying $1,700 self-rocking bassinets, artisanal dog food, and business-class seats to Europe.
And yet, if you talk to these high-income earners—the judges, the tech managers, the accountants - they don’t feel like the Monopoly Man. They feel "stretched." They fret over college tuition and the cost of an HVAC repair. They are earning more than their parents ever dreamed of, but they are haunted by the feeling that they are still one bad month away from the edge.
Why? Because wealth is a terrible cure for anxiety. As the WSJ points out, many of these families grew up in households where a $1,200 bill was a "catastrophe." They’ve moved into the penthouse, but they’re still bracing for the ceiling to fall in.
The Munger Antidote: 5 Rules for a Wealthy Life
This brings us to the late, great Charlie Munger. While the modern upper-middle class is busy treading water in a sea of "status creep," Munger offered a different set of principles for a successful life.
If you want to actually feel as wealthy as your balance sheet says you are, follow these rules:
- Don’t have a lot of envy. The neighbors’ new Porsche is their problem, not yours.
- Don’t have a lot of resentment. It’s the only poison you drink, hoping the other person dies.
- Don’t overspend your income. The simplest math is often the hardest to follow.
- Stay cheerful in spite of your troubles. Resilience is a critical financial asset.
- Deal with reliable people. Bad partners are the fastest way to lose your hard-earned savings.
The Bottom Line: Scaling the Economic Ladder
The Wall Street Journal data proves that the American Dream is alive for a third of the country. We are wealthier, more educated, and more upwardly mobile than the headlines often suggest.
But the "twist" is this: You can scale the economic ladder all the way to the top, but if you take your envy and your overspending with you, you’ll find the view from the top looks remarkably like the view from the bottom.
Financial Planning for High-Income Earners & Business Owners
If this story resonates with you, you aren't alone. I work with high-income earners and business owners just like Randy, people who have done the hard work of building wealth but want to ensure that wealth provides actual peace of mind.
I am a CFP® professional based in Fort Worth, Texas, serving clients locally and across the United States. Whether you are navigating the complexities of business ownership or managing a growing retirement portfolio, I can help you align your balance sheet with your values.
Ready to move past the "stretched" feeling? Schedule a meeting here.
On a totally unrelated note. My daughter is playing softball this year and got player of the game. We won't go into the score of this weekend's games, but she was jacked and has been wearing her hardware ever since.
I am not one to beat the budgeting drum, but Carl Richards' recent illustration says it best.
A reminder for us all, picking stocks is difficult, and picking stocks because we enjoy their product can be especially painful.
