Real Deal: The 'American Dream' now costs $4.4 million
Caleb Silver, editor in chief at Investopedia, says while the "dream" is different for everyone the price tag is around $4.4 million.
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Wedding costs, sending your kids to college, buying a home, and retirement all has a price tag - and the "American Dream" is now costing more.
Caleb Silver, editor in chief at Investopedia, says while the "dream" is different for everyone the price tag is around $4.4 million.
But he says people are coming up short. Silver says, if you work a lifetime of earnings at the median income you are going to come up with about $3.5 million.
So, what goes into the $4.4 million estimate? Silver says, "We were looking at retirement. Having about $1.5 million for retirement building that up over a lifetime so you could live 25-30 years after work and be able to afford that. Owning a new car that's around $800,000 over a lifetime if you buy one or two new cars and you think about the financing, when you think about weddings, those are about $44,000 today believe it or not. Raising a couple kids and sending them to college even a public university around $830,000, we looked at owning a home, pets, yearly vacation a funeral, all the things that are reasonable, again not everybody will do these things or want these things."
