How can anyone call their life successful if they aren't living at least upper middle class?

I'm alive. That's huge for me right now.

If this is your thinking i'm guessing your 'successful middle-class' life isn't something you've earned.
Sounds like something you were born into.

I've seen that many recessions and job cuts and mortgage hikes and poor government handling of the economy than anything else in my 53 years i think !
I've seen people lose their jobs. People lose their homes. Governments fritter our retirement funds for the last thirty years.
So MY measure of SUCCESS is keeping a roof over my head; food in the freezer and having the lights on !

If you can buy what makes your life worthwhile, it can be taken away from you.

A financial crash can leave you on the street with no wealth and nothing else either.

All the stuff you mention would be fun but I wouldn't sell the things that make me consider I have a successful life to buy them. Not even if the things I value HAD value.

They don't, because you can't get them at a store. Trusted faithful friends who would love me whether we were jetting off to the tropics in my Lear or drinking coffee at McDonald's.A spiritual relationship with a Higher Power. Confidence that things are going as they are meant to and the physical strength to give help where I can. Someone who loves me. The ability to learn from and be entertained by books. And a new not-learned-by-choice knowledge that we 'need' far less than we think.

Relative to other Americans I have nothing and still I have more than what's needed to survive.

If the house burns down and the car gets totaled and the clothes go out of style, and you can look around you and still feel rich, then you are.

You kinda suck as a person.

Suicide rates are higher among the more wealthy.

Everyone has different life goals.

And yet the wealthy still commit suicide.

In this day and age that’s more like a dream

you worry to much about money

Because success isn't always about the material.

Success means different things for different people. Someone starving to death in a third world country will consider living in a shitty apartment in a developed country as successful. It's all about perspective.

Sadly you are way off the mark on what being successful means in my opinion

My idea of success is having what I need to be happy. A beautiful wife & family, a nice house on the lake, a nice car & a 4x4 p/u truck, good friends, my guitars, and 55 years experience playing them...And RETIRED!

Some people are higher maintenance than others. As long as the bills are paid, I don't sweat it. I'd rather run through the woods like a demon bitch than sit around the house anyway.

Maybe that's success for you but not everyone desires some of those things you mentioned. You're missing the bigger picture.

Success could mean being content. There are people who have a lot but they struggle with other things.

Defense mechanism is strong as hell

I think so.