Middle Class Mentality

I am a teacher by trade and recently had a discussion with some of my fellow teachers about how individuals of various classes prioritize and handle money. I teach in what is considered a relatively low income district where many families are more or less impoverished. Despite this fact, one still sees most students wearing flashy sneakers, carrying iPods, or sporting the latest Baby Phat or Sean John fashions. The reason for this is that people who live in what is called "generational poverty" place a higher emphasis on the status provided by having material goods. If you make $1000 per month, it might be a higher priority to spend $300 of than on an iPod so that you or your children fit in better rather than paying bills on time.

I come from a middle class background, and although I wouldn't call either of my parents masters of personal finance, I was brought up to believe that sometimes you just can't have all the things the wealthier kids have. Since I have been living on my own I have noticed the ways in which my mother, who was my primary caretaker, influenced me with her frugal ways. Probably the most obvious area is food. For example, I can usually come up with a meal for supper from items in my cupboards or refrigerator that someone else might overlook. Also, I never put more than the slightest amount of mayonnaise or butter on bread, or meats and cheeses on sandwiches. In general, I tend to think of nearly everything I consume in terms of how much it costs. Whether it is a new TV or a cup of Starbucks coffee, I always feel a little twinge of "could this money be better spent" when I lay out cash (or charge, unfortunately) for these kinds of items. Some of these habits have been eroded by the fact that I have a little more now than my mother did then and I don't have two kids to worry about, but I still value these lessons my mom taught me without knowing it.

I don't mean this to be a reinforcement of classist stereotypes, but the discussion about how different groups handle money made me that much more aware of how I handle (or should handle) my own.