There is no official definition / delineation of income classes here.*

It is all about who you compare with. If you come to this forum and read the many posters' high incomes ($300k - $700k pa) then obviously the $160k pa your family earns is going to place it as a lower middle income family.

This is a phenomenon observed in many social studies especially in big cities. People of similar income class tended to congregate / live in the same neighborhood. And this leads the people to think and feel they are middle class even though they may be earning very little (if they are staying in a poor neighborhood) or they may be earning a lot (if they are staying in rich neighborhood). *They look at their neighbors and see that they have similar material possessions and conclude that they must thus be average or middle class.*

Even though Singapore is a much smaller city, this phenomenon does exist. Condo dwellers tend to think they are middle income as they see their neighbors both in their own condos and neiighbouring condos having pretty much the same material possessions - cars, maids, country club membership etc. likewise for those staying in HDB heartlands and fully landed property enclaves.

So you should not be surprised if a guy earning $500k pa living in a landed property enclave declare that he is a middle income guy. This is because he is comparing with fellow high income neighbours (businessmen or highly paid professionals).

One end result of this phenomenon is that the rich tended to overestimate the income of the poor, while the poor tended to underestimate the income of the rich! What this is saying is that the poor guy will think the rich guy is perhaps earning $10k - $50k pa more than him when in fact the rich could be actually earning a few hundred $k more!

But with the Internet and with people more willing to share their income openly, this skewed impression would be corrected. In the beginning of course, you will have reactions of disbelief and denials. You will also see people coming forward with outlandish claims - part of the denial process. Then come self deprecating claims of being poor/low income - part of the acceptance process.