Owning a home, raising a family, and retiring comfortably now carries a lifetime price tag of about $5.3 million—and Americans’ paychecks are falling further behind.
That’s according to Investopedia’s annual analysis of what it costs to reach eight classic life milestones: owning a home, buying new cars, raising two children and sending them to college, retiring, paying for healthcare, having a wedding, owning pets, and taking a yearly vacation. The total rose 4.1% from last year, to roughly $5.32 million from $5.11 million. As recently as 2023, the same basket of milestones cost about $3.4 million. Fortune reported last year that you needed at least $5 million—and a college degree—to reach the American Dream, up from the multimillion-dollar figure tallied in 2024.
