Funding the "American dream"

Recently I saw an article entitled "Visualizing The Cost Of The American Dream In 2025."

The opening paragraph reads: "The American Dream isn’t cheap. Owning a home, raising a family, and retiring comfortably now total over $5 million across a lifetime for a household. This milestone has grown increasingly out of reach as the median age of a U.S. homebuyer has risen to 56, up from 31 in 1981. Meanwhile, U.S. fertility rates have hit record lows amid rising unaffordability."

The article breaks down the cost of the American dream as follows:

I'm astounded by some of these costs.

Some figures are quite accurate. Owning a home is, indeed, increasingly unaffordable for many people, in large part because there are so few inexpensive starter homes to give young couples a foothold in the real estate market. Healthcare costs are similarly expensive.

Beyond that, however, are these figures accurate? Do people honestly spend nearly $40,000 on their pets? Over $38,000 for a wedding? Nearly $900,000 raising two kids, and even more than that on cars?

I have a feeling the Lewis family is working on a completely different scale of economy than what these figures illustrate.....