2026 10 08 Financial Issues

[laughs]

"And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

Very encouraging, folks.

God is the one who gives us the power to get wealth.

We only do it by his power.

And you know, it's an interesting thing, 'cause our topic of the day, Sam, I think has a lot to do with this.

It's the American dream.

The American dream.

And you know, many people have, uh, cried out that perhaps the American dream is dead, or it's unattainable for future generations.

Sam, give us some of the details of what the common acceptance of the American dream is, and how much money you might actually need to have in order to achieve the American dream.

Yes.

And then we can talk about what the American dream actually is.

Well, according to the all-knowing experts at Investopedia, the American dream now costs $5.3 million over a lifetime, up 4.1% from last year's updated total.

Now, of course, that's an average over a lifetime, so you're gonna get poorer people and richer people in there.

But according to Investopedia, there are eight classic milestones of the American dream: owning a home, buying new cars, raising two children and sending them to college, retiring, paying for healthcare, having a wedding, owning pets, uh, and taking a yearly vacation.

We have a graphic for this too, if, uh, you wanna see how that's broken down.

But I'll give you some of those numbers.

Um, owning a home is $1.27 million.

Similar for owning a new car, specifically two new cars.

Retirement over a lifetime, 1.2 million.

Uh, and raising two kids and sending to them to college is, uh, close to a million dollars as well, $950,000 to be precise.

You know, interesting, Sam, I'll say right off the bat, I think some of those numbers, li- like you said, I'm glad you said that this was an average.

Uh, but it seems like some of those numbers [laughs] maybe skewed a little bit high.

Uh, a new car, $1.2 million, two new cars, $1.2 million over a lifetime.

Now, I know that factors in car payments, that factors in maintenance, that factor...

[laughs]

"And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

Very encouraging, folks.

God is the one who gives us the power to get wealth.

We only do it by his power.

And you know, it's an interesting thing, 'cause our topic of the day, Sam, I think has a lot to do with this.

It's the American dream.

The American dream.

And you know, many people have, uh, cried out that perhaps the American dream is dead, or it's unattainable for future generations.

Sam, give us some of the details of what the common acceptance of the American dream is, and how much money you might actually need to have in order to achieve the American dream.

Yes.

And then we can talk about what the American dream actually is.

Well, according to the all-knowing experts at Investopedia, the American dream now costs $5.3 million over a lifetime, up 4.1% from last year's updated total.

Now, of course, that's an average over a lifetime, so you're gonna get poorer people and richer people in there.

But according to Investopedia, there are eight classic milestones of the American dream: owning a home, buying new cars, raising two children and sending them to college, retiring, paying for healthcare, having a wedding, owning pets, uh, and taking a yearly vacation.

We have a graphic for this too, if, uh, you wanna see how that's broken down.

But I'll give you some of those numbers.

Um, owning a home is $1.27 million.

Similar for owning a new car, specifically two new cars.

Retirement over a lifetime, 1.2 million.

Uh, and raising two kids and sending to them to college is, uh, close to a million dollars as well, $950,000 to be precise.

You know, interesting, Sam, I'll say right off the bat, I think some of those numbers, li- like you said, I'm glad you said that this was an average.

Uh, but it seems like some of those numbers [laughs] maybe skewed a little bit high.

Uh, a new car, $1.2 million, two new cars, $1.2 million over a lifetime.

Now, I know that factors in car payments, that factors in maintenance, that factor...