Does the "American Dream" now cost more than $5 million (over a lifetime)?

[ucbalumnus]

@tamagotchi

Wow! That’s a lot of cars.

@Caleb Silver and Amanda Morelli in Investopedia

A lifetime of buying and financing two new cars every 10 years at today’s prices comes out to $900,346. The total includes all fixed expenses for a two-car household, including monthly payments, insurance, and maintenance costs. It does not include what you might recoup by selling your car and applying those proceeds to purchasing a new vehicle. That’s nearly $90,000 more than our 2024 calculations, with inflation, pricier insurance, and higher financing costs driving the increase.

Two new cars every 10 years could mean 10 or so new cars over the lifetime for two people after they enter the work force. So that seems to be assuming about $90,000 per car over having it for 10 years (including insurance and maintenance). Presumably, they are looking at “average” new cars (about $49,000 these days) rather than less expensive ones (the cheapest new car in the US is about $20,000).