The American Dream now costs $5.3 million—and even college grads will fall $1.2 million short

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 .

What’s in the $5.3 million price tag Homeownership remains the biggest line item.

The lifetime cost of owning and maintaining a home rose 7.7% to about $1.28 million, up more than $91,000 in a single year.

The fastest-growing category was raising two children and putting them through college.

That cost climbed nearly 9%, to about $954,000 from $876,000, driven by pricier childcare and in-state tuition.

Replacing two new cars every five years adds roughly $1.21 million over a lifetime, and retirement costs about the same.

Healthcare was the only category to get cheaper, slipping to $413,000 from $414,000.

Smaller milestones add up too: about $38,800 for a wedding, roughly $40,800 to care for a cat and a dog, and nearly $187,000 for a lifetime of annual vacations.

Paychecks aren’t keeping up While the cost of the dream rose 4.1%, private-sector wages and salaries grew just 3.1% over the same period, according to Investopedia’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Investopedia estimates that a full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree earns about $3.6 million between ages 25 and 64, before income taxes.