Basically the same story as yours.

But we are all just learning to live with it.

I feel lucky to have shelter, food and the money to pay the utility bills. I think I have a total of 4 pieces of furniture - a bed, a dresser, a table lamp and a little kitchen table with 2 beat up chairs.

I don't care. If people don't like it they don't need to visit. I can always just go visit them at their houses that actually have a couch to sit on.

I spent a year in a leaky mobile home with only wood to heat it. I told myself that I would be happy as long as I had food, warmth, and the ability to take a hot shower.

As a single guy though, I basically only have ONE chair. I had to laugh when my sister and family came to visit. I realized I did not even have a place for them to sit.

What? I should buy a bunch of extra chairs for company?

Sometimes I get a job that pays fairly decent wages but those are always temp jobs. Currently haven't had a paycheck or UI benefits since Dec last year and am trying to figure out how I'll make it to the first paycheck at a summer job that starts next month. And I'm hoping to move into a smaller lodging to save $50/month when I start getting paid again.

And my background and circumstances, otherwise, are the same as yours. I used to earn enough to support a divorced sister w/2 kids but that was a long time ago now. Just shy of 60, it really doesn't matter all that much anymore, things won't be getting any better in my lifetime.

that you NEED to work at almost age 60.

I am thinking 57 at the latest for my retirement, and kinda feel like quitting right now. But the more sensible part says I need to work until I am at least 55. But I hope to switch to part-time in less than three months and then work until age 57. Part time for another 4.5 years is less work than full time for another 2.5 years and the pension should be much better too. By much better, I mean $600 a month instead of $400.

I am 55. I don't expect things to get better either. I am going to be finishing my paralegal classes in about a year, and I may be moving to Chicago if I cannot find a satisfactory job here. At my age, moving to a new city to start over seems ridiculous. But I'll do it. This is the kind of thing people do in this country these days.

I probably always identified as middle class, even when I was relatively poor.

I spent most of my working life well into the bottom 20%. Now I am about 35th percentile and looking to semi-retire and get back into the bottom 20%.

I would consider that to be a step UP for me. I am sick of the long hours, the responsibilities and the outright bullsh*t of my supervisor job. I don't really need the money, for one thing. For another thing, I cannot enjoy the money if I don't feel secure in my job.

The major definition of middle class these days though seems to use the Romney definition.

I am kinda tired of arguing that on DU.

Because you are right. From a policy perspective, nobody cares about the bottom 40%. All this talk of "middle class" just seems to mean "oh, we need to help those in the 80-99% income range, the middle class is suffering".

There have been many discussions here on DU trying to define it, and I never seem to see any consensus.

Me? I don't feel particularly poor. Nor do I feel particularly rich. I get along OK in retirement, so maybe I am in the middle? I don't know .......

What a difference. I quit looking for a job in 2011. We live on a fourth of what we used to make.

We live in a small apartment in a beautiful big old house that is river front. The big picture window has a million dollar view of lawn and river. I am rich in books and music, am a very experienced cook so we can eat nutritiously. I have rich memories of being upper middle class; shopping at Nordstrom, entertaining well, social status, etc. Those things fall away, as every one of us knows in the 99%. We had a comfortable life, and I worked and also volunteered for many civic causes. We had a 14-room Victorian house. It was sweet.

I solely support an intellectually handicapped adult family member and have been the caregiver for 42 years now. That is my main struggle; as I need to provide more for this person than I do for myself. Providing shoes, rain gear, and a life that is not so bare and spare as to be depressing for this dependent. I have not kept a car for about ten years now because we are able to walk and use public transportation. But now I kinda regret not hanging on to a car. The family member I care for has an old ankle injury, and it is now arthritic and is sometimes a problem.

We feel extremely blessed to live in a beautiful, beautiful location, with our shabby chic furniture and our cats and border collie. We have a big family. They are all doing better than we are, because I am not able to work away from home.

Our life has been enriched by thrift shop and estate sale shopping. It's possible to feel that burst of shopping happiness by finding a stash of old cookbooks or vintage tablecloths, for me. I highly recommend it as a pastime.

But yeah, I'd still like to win the lottery. Guess I ought to buy a ticket now and then.

My current pipe dream is to move to Central or South America when my kids are grown. I'm going to take the pittance of money I get from social security and the VA and give up on the struggle of trying to survive in the states and chill out the rest of my life. My kids are 3 and 5 right now so I figure 15-20 years from now I'll be there. I'll be just turning 50 and I'll have a whole lot of life in front of me at that point in my life.

Many countries in that region only require like $800-1,400 a month in the form of a pension to get a residency visa and many of the countries have socialized medicine. Hell, I get $1,600 a month from the VA right now for a nifty disability rating I have from the war in Iraq. I could move right now at the age of 34 and retire, but I have my kids to worry about.

I lived for 4 years in Germany and I loved it. I know that South America isn't Germany, but I'm comfortable living in a different country hardly being able to speak the language. I don't need to be able to drive 3 minutes to a super-wallmart to do my grocery shopping at 3:00 am and I'm fine not having traditional American food. I have between now and then to get fluent with Spanish and I'll be good to go.

Middle class is so nebulous, so hard to nail down, what with the scores of different definitions and subdividing within, it's become too broad to draw an accurate picture of a given person's situation.

I call myself working class out of proletariat pride....and because it irks the hell out of my hard right-wing father.