What do you suppose the median income of Styleform members is?

[OinkBoink]

The median income of Styleforum is under $100K. That is nearly for certain. Pretty good estimates put just over 40% of our readership (not just members) with incomes over $100K. This means that that median has to be under that. The "median" income is probably fairly meaningless for Styleforum, since the distribution is most likely multimodal. If I had to, I'd guess that there would be a cluster of posters in the sub $30K range, another cluster at $60-75K. and then a cluster at $110-$120K, with a pretty long tail. I have a legitimate reason to be interested in this. I have a feeling that some others are interested only so they can justify being judgemental assholes. Carry on.

I was genuinely curious. I make okay money, but not even hut-dwelling Afghanis would ever confuse me as wealthy by any means. But it seems like $2,000 suits are regarded as commoners' wear here. To me that's a bit crazy, unless you make about $5 million/year and have a net worth at least around $20 million.

 

[lasbar]



I was genuinely curious. I make okay money, but not even hut-dwelling Afghanis would ever confuse me as wealthy by any means. But it seems like $2,000 suits are regarded as commoners' wear here. To me that's a bit crazy, unless you make about $5 million/year and have a net worth at least around $20 million.

Houses for courses...

Some people spend 50000 dollars on a car and I fond that crazy even if my wardrobe is more than that...

Different people different dreams...

Some go on holidays in 5 star hotels, go out all the time and so on..

Who are we to judge?

 

[DocHolliday]



I was genuinely curious. I make okay money, but not even hut-dwelling Afghanis would ever confuse me as wealthy by any means. But it seems like $2,000 suits are regarded as commoners' wear here. To me that's a bit crazy, unless you make about $5 million/year and have a net worth at least around $20 million.

Bear in mind, for some of our posters, clothing is a primary hobby. A lot of guys who'd balk at $200 shoes are fine with dropping that much on a single Friday night out. Or they see no problem in spending $800 on an iPad or $10,000 on a bike. We all have different spending priorities. Also, this is SF: Many of the $2k suits you see talked about are being bought at 75 percent off.

 

[gladhands]



After your warning, I wont be searching for it, but I have hard time believing even 40% hit 100k. I'd say 10-15% is more accurate unless there was a concrete method used to determine the number other than people saying (read: exaggerating) what their income is.

If we're talking household income, it's incredibly easy to believe.

 

[lasbar]



Bear in mind, for some of our posters, clothing is a primary hobby. A lot of guys who'd balk at $200 shoes are fine with dropping that much on a single Friday night out. Or they see no problem in spending $800 on an iPad or $10,000 on a bike. We all have different spending priorities.
Also, this is SF: Many of the $2k suits you see talked about are being bought at 75 percent off.

For some people , like me, it is their primary passion but we're not the majority.

 

[in stitches]



After your warning, I wont be searching for it, but I have hard time believing even 40% hit 100k. I'd say 10-15% is more accurate unless there was a concrete method used to determine the number other than people saying (read: exaggerating) what their income is.

enlighten youself

No. Analysis of IPs. Surveys with voluntary responses are useless. It's not 100% accurate, obviously, since there are assumptions, but it's a reasonably robust method of getting mean and median values. If anything, I'd say that the means and medians are probably slightly underestimated. For example, say a lawyer in Ohio (and we have lots of those, lawyers, I mean, not lawyers from Ohio) logs in from work. However, in the evening, he logs in from his home. Well, HHI for the general population in Ohio, even in his neighbourhood, is pretty low compared to what he (or even his junior associates) might be making, so the estimated mean HHI calculated is considerably lower than the actual.

HHI is "Household income" which is what the Census generally reports.
You can't reconcile an IP to an individual, but certain IPs belong to specific institutions. For example, if you checked my IPs, you might find out something about my day job. Of course, you can't tell whether I can a secretary, or the University president, but you can estimate the mean and median HHI based on where I work. Anyway, it's a google implementation, but they are probably the best in the world at what they do.

How much would you give me if you were wrong? A disproportionate number of Styleforum readers (compared to internet use throughout the population) browse the forum from work. This should confirm, as we all already knew, the more you get paid, the more time you have to **** around. Like I already said, you are going to miss a lot of the outliers, so your mean is probably going to be off more than your median, but both are reasonably robust - I've already outlined some of the issues with even that, though. Nothing I'd testify to in court, but decent enough.
And, no, I will sanction a salary poll. You are welcome to post yours, of course. I imagine you'd love to.

 

[F. Corbera]



Bear in mind, for some of our posters, clothing is a primary hobby. A lot of guys who'd balk at $200 shoes are fine with dropping that much on a single Friday night out. Or they see no problem in spending $800 on an iPad or $10,000 on a bike. We all have different spending priorities.
Also, this is SF: Many of the $2k suits you see talked about are being bought at 75 percent off.

It looks like you got sucked into talking about money.

Welcome.

 

[F. Corbera]



But it seems like $2,000 suits are regarded as commoners' wear here.

"Commoner" is an unfortunate term. Its implication of ubiquity is also a tad scary.

 

[mcbrown]



I was genuinely curious. I make okay money, but not even hut-dwelling Afghanis would ever confuse me as wealthy by any means. But it seems like $2,000 suits are regarded as commoners' wear here. To me that's a bit crazy, unless you make about $5 million/year and have a net worth at least around $20 million.

I don't know which threads you are reading, but I see plenty of threads advising people on a tight budget to shop Joseph A. Banks and focus on getting a good fit. True "SF-approved" brands are available in the range of $500-1,000 (e.g. Brooks Brothers). And I'm sorry, but you don't need to be a millionaire to buy a suit in that price range - that is just a load of crap. My very blue-collar parents bought me a $500 J. Press suit for job interviews 13 years ago, because in my father's non-millionaire mind it was better to have one decent suit than 3 crappy ones. Turns out he was right - that suit has survived countless $200 (pre-SF) suits and is still my favorite.

I have never seen anyone here suggest that dropping $2,000 on a suit is chump change, unless it is in a thread in which a troll is making an outrageous claim about bespoke suits from Saville Row or something like that, and someone is trying to disabuse them of whatever mistaken notion they have gotten into their head about what a bespoke suit from such a place costs.

 

[bourbonbasted]



I have never seen anyone here suggest that dropping $2,000 on a suit is chump change, unless it is in a thread in which a troll is making an outrageous claim about bespoke suits from Saville Row or something like that, and someone is trying to disabuse them of whatever mistaken notion they have gotten into their head about what a bespoke suit from such a place costs.

The dudes on here who do view $2,000 suits as "chump change" would certainly never say that. They'd post pictures... :foo:

 

[DocHolliday]



It looks like you got sucked into talking about money.
Welcome.

Was my earlier excitement not palpable? I can devote only so much of my energy to combating the menace of slippery Aldens and appreciating AEs.

I keep checking back in hopes that specific earnings lists have been compiled. Someone should get on that -- a sticky in the making.

 

[F. Corbera]



I can devote only so much of my energy to combating the menace of slippery Aldens and appreciating AEs.

Learning how to walk while wearing shoes is not easy for everyone, you know.

Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his slippery shoes

 

[otc]

Not sure why on earth I am posting in this thread...

After your warning, I wont be searching for it, but I have hard time believing even 40% hit 100k. I'd say 10-15% is more accurate unless there was a concrete method used to determine the number other than people saying (read: exaggerating) what their income is.

If we're talking household income, it's incredibly easy to believe.

At the household level it is not even questionable....a lot of married people here and a very high percentage of 2-earner households are over 100k (wikipedia puts it at 18% of households).

Even on the individual level (which I think is the real question), you have to look at the demographics of the site. The country average is less (maybe 5-6% over 100k) but if you start concentrating on the urban centers that most SF posters come from, it starts to look better--lot of SF posters from places like NYC where salaries like that are a lot more common.
Then you look at the sort of people who join this site--a lot of professionals and people who have to wear suits and nice shoes (that is probably how they first googled their way on to SF). Median income of someone with a professional degree is something like 100k.
Then you remove large chunks of the lower-earning demographics; we have a bunch of students who aren't yet wage-earners, but I don't see many SF posters who work at mcdonalds or complain about their rough day at the auto plant--people in those groups probably aren't interested in SF's content.

 

[lasbar]



The dudes on here who do view $2,000 suits as "chump change" would certainly never say that. They'd post pictures... :foo:

In good taste as ever...

 

[Master Squirrel]

Median income of someone with a professional degree is something like 100k.

Um... no. It really depends on the field and if the degree holder is practicing in said field.