Study estimates American dream milestones will cost $5.3m over a lifetime
A new estimate puts the lifetime cost of eight milestones associated with the American Dream at $5.3 million for an average American, up 4.1 per cent on last year. The figure highlights how rising costs may make home ownership, raising a family and other markers of financial security harder to attain.
A single-family home has a median price above $420,000, with average 30-year mortgage rates at 6.32 per cent; maintaining two cars is estimated to cost about $1.2 million over time. Raising two children to age 17 costs just over $700,000, a 9.5 per cent annual increase, while college tuition is also projected to rise. Gallup data indicate 45 per cent of today’s workforce expect to have enough for a comfortable retirement, and 69 per cent still believe they will achieve the American Dream, four percentage points fewer than last year.
- Eight American Dream milestones are estimated to cost $5.3 million.
- The total rose 4.1 per cent in a year.
- Most workers expect to keep working at retirement age.
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The “American Dream” is a broad idea that people can build a secure life through work and opportunity. It is often linked to milestones such as owning a home, raising a family, going to university and retiring comfortably.
The estimate groups the costs of eight such milestones across a lifetime. It reflects expenses that can vary widely, including housing, transport, childcare and education, and does not mean every person will follow the same path.
The figures matter because they offer a measure of the financial pressures facing households. Surveys also track whether people expect to reach these goals, giving a sense of how affordable and achievable they feel.
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The case for
The estimate suggests that rising housing, transport and family costs are putting widely valued goals further out of reach, even as fewer workers feel confident about retirement. People who see home ownership, raising children and financial security as important measures of opportunity can argue that these figures warrant attention to affordability and whether incomes and public policy are keeping pace.
The case against
A lifetime total can make the American Dream seem less attainable than it is: the estimate combines costs spread over decades, and people’s choices about where to live, whether to own cars and how to raise a family vary widely. A thoughtful sceptic could also argue that the figures describe average costs, not what any one person must spend, and that the reported decline in optimism does not by itself show that these milestones are becoming impossible.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “American Dream is now out of reach unless you have $5.3m in assets, new report says”.