When I was growing up, it was assumed that pretty much everyone in my generation would be able to achieve the American Dream. But today most of the U.S. population is not living the American Dream, and more people are falling out of the middle class every day. As I have detailed in previous articles, this is particularly true for Millennials and those in Generation Z. The collective prosperity of the middle class has been declining for an extended period of time, and now that long-term decline threatens to become a full-blown avalanche.

Borrowing money always creates pain, and since 2009 our leaders in Washington have borrowed and spent 27 trillion dollars that we did not have.  Pumping all of that extra money into the system has had very serious consequences, because now the purchasing power of our dollars has been greatly diminished.

In fact, Newsweek is reporting that the cost of living the American Dream for a lifetime has now reached 5 million dollars…

The American Dream has long symbolized the promise of opportunity, prosperity, and upward mobility. Coined in 1931 by writer James Truslow Adams in The Epic of America, the term described "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."

But nearly a century later, achieving that vision is more expensive than ever. According to new research published by Investopedia, the lifetime cost of attaining the traditional American Dream—including homeownership, retirement, raising children, a wedding, new cars, healthcare, pets, and annual vacations—now totals roughly $5 million. These calculations assume a college-educated, dual-income household capable of sustaining these ambitions over a lifetime.

Is your household going to bring in 5 million dollars over the course of your lifetime?

Sadly, most U.S. households don't have a prayer of getting anywhere even close to that.

But if you want to live the American Dream for an entire lifetime, that is what it is going to take.