Rich or poor

Interesting, wonder if these brackets corespond to the old socio economic groups here... A,B,C,D,...etc?

 

I read the article a few days ago, the income in the study apparently refers to family income, not to individuals, and it's unclear to me whether the stated income brackets are before or after tax. Moreover there seems to be confusion about whether family in this analysis coincides with household.
Senators were also confused by the report, and have asked PIDS to clarify their numbers/brackets.

 

I guess the vast majority of people here own their living spaces, ranging from nipa houses to cement dwellings. Single foreigners often rent but I suspect they are not included in the study. I suspect that the study is in reference to Filipino natives who “own” where they live in one way or another but may or may not pay a little rent for land their dwelling sits on.


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As for us foreigners in this country, I would assume and hope that a large majority will classify in at least the "upper middle income" bracket.
Whether that means they're actually above where they'd be in their home country depends on priorities / spending habits.
Obviously (in non covid times) it is much more affordable to dine out here than in first world countries, so if you value that highly you might feel your buying power here is a fair bit higher; same goes for buying/renting a house, for most of us it's much cheaper here; same for owning a car, insurance/road tax, fuel, maintenance is all much cheaper.
For those who insist on buying loads of imported stuff in the supermarket, they might feel this place is twice as expensive as in their country of origin (liquor and cigarettes excepted, because of way way lower duties).

I would guess for most of us the balance financially is still a positive one, especially for those who benefit from (income) tax treaties.

 

Retired Americans receiving the “max” social security can reach the bottom of the upper middle class level. Additional income is needed to join the rich, unless of course you are a young fit healthy person still working. Nice to know we have a few of them among us.

 

I think too that retired Americans receiving the Max were well paid professionals and probably have investment assets like 401k, Roth IRA and possibly pensions. If married, the spouse will have SS too, even not working where she gets half of your max if marriage was 10 years or more.


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In the Netherlands the state pension does not depend on career, only on having been a resident between ages 15 and 65, For each missed year you get 2% less than the standard pension. Each citizen has their own pension (around 800 €), so a couple gets double that once they both reach pension age (used to be 65, 66 years and something now, but will rise further in years to come). Pensioners who live on their own get an extra 400€ a month on top of their state pension, but loose that when moving in with a partner (so yes, marriage/cohabitation is expensive for Dutch pensionado's lol). There used to be a system where pensioners would get extra if they are sole provider in their family and have a younger partner, but that has been abandoned.
On top of that, most people (all those receiving a salary) are insured compulsory with a pensionfund and receive a (private) pension on top of their state pension from legal pension age. These pensions do depend on career, many used to be based on 75% (including the state pension) of end-pay, built up in 40 years of employment, but nowadays that has mostly given way to a cheaper "average pay" base.
Self employed people need to make their own arrangements if they deem the state pension insufficient.

The Dutch pension system has previously been described as one of the best internationally. Currently pensionfunds are struggling however because the central bank requires them to calculate (current reserves against future obligations) returns on investment based on the very low current interest rate. A major overhaul of the system is therefore in the works, despite these pensionfunds sitting on huge financial reserves.