The American Dream has typically looked something like this: A steady job, a shiny new set of keys to a first home, marriage, two kids (and maybe a dog), all while building wealth along the way. For generations, that’s been the familiar “white-picket fence” picture of making it in America.
But that has run smack into “the great postponement,” an affordability crisis and economic stagnation that haven’t been seen in many years. Some of the younger generation’s response to these factors has been caricatured as “financial nihilism,” but young adults are still by and large hitting the same milestones their parents did, just in a different sequence, in a different timeline and often with different tools. It’s a more improvisational shot at the American Dream, because it has to be.
