The article describes the "accumulated" expenses over a lifetime.������

People didn’t read the article: it says a lifetime expenditure for each category.
My take: retirement is way low, should be doubled to $3M,
Home cost includes all the expenses like: taxes, bonds, insurance costs, cost of new home, renovations, realtor fees, etc.
Car sound about right, maybe a little high. I get 2 new cars every 2 years and the cars aren’t cheap, plus insurance, repairs, maintenance costs, golf cart expenses would probably be included,
Kids: never ending, everything else seems to be in line

The figures are based on a lifetime of expense not a one time purchase. That said I find it interesting the American auto manufactures now see themselves as important as owning a house and expect our lifetime investment to be the same.

Jump across the pound and most citizens don't even own a car.

I think they mean over your lifetime for houses and cars including upkeep, taxes and maintenance.

I grew up with nothing, not even dad, my grand mother raised me along with her 7 kids in 4 room Shack outside farming community small town. My grandparents never even own vehicle in their life. Made due on 2 acre slop. I started working when I was 13 32 hours week in grocery store at 60 cent hour. Had NO change for higher education. My son was first to earned doctorate degree in my family on both sides. Worked for everything, no welfare, no food stamps, no grants, no commodities. You didn’t work or grow food you didn’t eat. The world doesn’t own me a thing. I earned everything I ever had. So I don’t want here about need 5 million to retire. In my whole life only made 1.4 million and 1/3 of that was probably taxes. Some might say being I spent 21 years in military and 20 federal I’m on welfare with my retirement annuities. But, I bet those didn’t have to consider joining military as option. I didn’t make those rules I earned them.

I’m afraid you didn’t read the entire article. $957,000 included the cost of the average house at, as I recall, $412,000, plus fees involved with the purchase, taxes for years, thirty years of interest on the mortgage, and upkeep (like new roofs, HVAC, etc.). The new car was based on a new car every ten years from 22 to 75, paid on the installment plan. The vacations were under $3,000 a year. (It used to cost $2,500 a year to fly my family of five from east coast to west coast to visit the grandparents yearly at Christmas.) The health care includes decades of paying for health insurance, but many of us here had that as a job benefit. The $1.6 million for retirement doesn’t take into account that a person’s contribution to that may have been much smaller. I had that much when I retired, in mutual funds, but my actual contributions to that fund were only around $300,000. The rest was the growth of the stock market over the decades. The cost of the kids includes sending them to state universities.

I scrimped on the American Dream. I bought used cars when the old ones were worn out. ($2,500, $4,000, $4,500. 5,500, $23,000, $30,000. That’s $68,000 plus repairs and some interest.) I’ve had five houses: $40,000, $200,000, 100,000, $430,000, $300,000. But I’ve paid off mortgages in ten years of less, when I had one, and remember, I sold the previous houses for more than I paid, and always enough to include the mortgage and taxes.

Perhaps we should call this the American Fantasy. I’d say that right now I’m living the American Dream for my age. My home is in good repair and paid for. I have a nice used car that I bought for cash a couple years ago. I’m in decent health and have Medicare and great supplemental insurance so being sick doesn’t cost me anything. I’m on a permanent vacation in paradise. I can buy anything I want without worrying about if I can afford it. (Fortunately, there’s very little I want.) My kids are 35-40 and educated and okay. I plan to leave them my mutual funds and home when I die.

I’d say it’s a weird article, and I’m glad my idea of the American Dream has always been more modest than that.

I'm sorry, but that is such crap. The American dream is living a happy life with family and friends, and that doesn't take a fortune; it takes "just enough" money and a lot of your own time invested. Enough money to have a stable place to live. Lots of places in the U.S. still have affordable housing, it's not a dream mansion, but you don't need that to be happy . It takes living somewhere with public transit and using it. It's being happy with a reliable car, not a car to impress others. It takes working your way through trade school or a state university. It takes buying many things in the secondary market, used; no one knows where you bought your beautiful things. Being happy takes spending time with your kids, not throwing money at them. Being happy takes spending quality time with your friends and family, at home or in a park enjoying each other's company. We traveled the world, still do, but never spent a fortune doing it. We stay in private guest houses, senior hostels, religious guest facilities, etc and take trains, public buses, or walk. We used to take our kids on cruises when there were 3rd and 4th in the cabin free deals getting inside cabins. Spoiler, you only sleep in your cabin and enjoy everything else during the cruise just like those who bought the expensive cabins. At this point I've seen most of the world, I have a lot of international friends, enjoy my children and grandchildren and have a very happy life. We saved every year, so that we could enjoy retirement. We never cared what "the Joneses" had or thought. We never were high earners, we never bought what we didn't need just because we saw it on TV, we never bought on impulse and we've had a great life, a very happy American dream life. Get your priorities straight. My children are not high earners, but with work they own their own homes, they have lovely children, great friends, cars, good jobs, and are happy. So much of happiness is in attitude. You can still live the American dream and do it on a regular salary. We here in the Villages are blessed living a great retirement too and that doesn't take a fortune either. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses and start enjoying the beautiful simple life we have here.

Guess I’ll miss the American Dream

“Kids. Who needs them?”

What a short-sighted and selfish opinion !!
America NEEDS kids to survive !!!

Otherwise as a nation, we are FINISHED in one generation.

Breath, Breath......................it's just an article which was posted on a social board and posters are commenting on the costs laid out in the article.

No one is saying money is the only thing.

:beer3:

Excellent synopsis! We too have enjoyed a good life using common sense and ambition. So many young people today lack the simple skills for home improvements, repairs and painting. Buying new vehicles is a waste of money when a one or two year old vehicle will do the trick. Buying sport clothing at the stadiums is a huge financial drain as are tickets. Seating is much better at home and the restroom is close when watching games.. The list goes on and on. Practical life experience when raising your children is key. There are too many idiots coming out of college now.

All costs included
 

I read the article and a lot of people are misinterpreting the cost. It isn’t the purchase price of home, it includes purchase price insurance, interest, taxes and maintenance. Also, it isn’t an average and Orange County or Tupelo MS would be more or less.

Over the course of my life, I've earned pretty much what's suggested in the article. I've not wasted much, although I wasted money on apartment rent for too long on a couple of occasions. I've paid off 4 homes, paid for two kids BS college degrees and grad schools and gave each a new car for graduation, I paid for two additional college and one additional grad degree, I owe nothing, and I've saved and invested pretty well. Besides Canada, I've only been out of the country once to attend a wedding, never been to Alaska or Hawaii, so vacations are pretty simple where the goal is fun and family time. When my dirt knap comes, my wife will be fine, and when her time comes, the kids will have something besides memories. The American Dream is very much alive when you live within you means, which may mean not living in the "best" zip codes, not buying the newest stuff, driving a car until "the wheels fall off", etc. Yes, that suggested $5M is a lot of money, but we all remember what we made when we first started work. My dad took a Treasury Dept job after WWII making a whopping $5,500/yr and was thrilled, my first job out of grad school in 1980 was $25k/yr and I thought wow... what am I going to do with that much money!? And look at the salaries we earned at the end of our working years compared to our first years. I try to separate the things I want from the things I need or may need, then plan accordingly. A quality education in a useful field has always been a priority because it can't be taken away from you. Lastly, the clock is ticking, and there is a temptation to burn through cash to complete a bucket list before the end, but our brain is volatile memory and that bucket list will be dust lost to time. Helping family, scholarships, and leaving a legacy are my focus.

& over many many years.

I would hack away at some of that bucket list. It sounds like your kids have done very well by you and by the time you pass away, the government may have a whole new system of removing extra cash from estates.