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Visualizing the Cost of the American Dream in 2024
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Today, the rising cost of living is making the American dream increasingly difficult to achieve.
While pandemic-led wage growth boosted real incomes, it followed five decades of stagnant wage increases. At the same time, housing prices have soared. Pushing up prices are a limited supply of homes, with home construction plummeting 55% compared to 2006. Together, these broad economic forces have made it harder to get ahead, even with a competitive salary.
This graphic shows the estimated cost of the American dream per household over the course of their lifetime, based on analysis from Investopedia.
The American Dream Costs a Hefty $4.4 Million
Below, we breakdown each aspect of the American dream by their lifetime cost as of 2024:
| American Dream | Lifetime Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Retirement | $1,599,995 | Recommended minimum savings for 20 year retirement |
| Owning a new car | $811,440 | Total of new car payments for adults (fuel/maintenance not included) |
| Wedding | $44,300 | Ceremony, reception, and engagement ring |
| Raising two children plus college | $832,172 | Raising children to age 18 and paying for four years at a public college each |
| Owning a home | $929,955 | Buying an existing single-family home with a 30-year mortgage (20% down payment) |
| Pets | $36,626 | Expenses of owning one dog and cat |
| Yearly vacation | $179,109 | Annual vacation from ages 22-84 |
| Funeral | $8,453 | Includes viewing and burial |
| American Dream Total | $4,442,050 |
The total cost of the American dream is no small sum—$4.4 million—exceeding the average lifetime salaries of both men ($3.3 million) and women ($2.4 million) with a Bachelor’s degree.
Overall, the largest cost is paying for a comfortable retirement. Here, it takes $1.6 million in savings, assuming a 4% annual withdrawal rate and inflation averaging 2.5% per year to retire for 20 years. Notably, the decline in private pension schemes has played a large role in making financial security in later years harder to achieve compared to previous generations.
Unsurprisingly, owning a home was the second-biggest expense, at $930,000 for an existing single-family home. Given the surging cost of home prices, 77% of U.S. households are unable to afford a median-priced home in 2024.
As fertility rates in America hit historic lows, raising two children and sending them to college would cost $832,000 overall. Today, 36% of Americans under 50 who don’t have children cite affordability concerns as a major reason for not having kids. Moreover, average college tuition costs have climbed a remarkable 748% since 1963, after adjusting for inflation.
Following a similar trend, wedding costs, too, have skyrocketed. Between 2019 and 2023, average costs increased by $4,000 alone amid inflationary pressures and pandemic backlogs. Today, it costs over $44,000, including the ceremony, reception, and engagement ring to say “I do”.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
To learn more about this topic from a home ownership perspective, check out this graphic on the salary needed to buy a home in 50 U.S. cities.
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