What’s Your Dream?

Is “The American Dream” dead & gone? Yes or no? Why?

I’m a hard “no.” Here’s why.

The American Dream, in the late 1800s and throughout most of the 20th century was something like this:

* Move to America (or be born here)
* Grow up in a community that you remember with fondness and joyful memories
* Graduate school (high school or maybe college)
* Get a job
* Work hard and save money
* Grow your net worth
* Achieve financial freedom to do what you want to do

Do you agree or disagree with the points above?

Behind all of that is economic freedom, meaning you have some degree of control over your financial destiny. Not complete control, but a high degree of control.

I do not think any of that has gone away or disappeared.

This morning I read a post by Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs), in which he met a 20 year old who started at Jersey Mike’s subs when he was 16. That 20 y/o is now the GM of that Jersey Mike’s store. He will own a franchise before he’s 25.

That’s just one anecdotal story, but that story demonstrates my point.

The American Dream is not dead or gone; it’s been smeared.

Somewhere along the line, “The American Dream” got associated with greed, pressure, 100 hour weeks, just scraping by, and lots of other negative connotations.

Furthermore, there is a force in our country that is constantly telling us that America is bad: founded bad, grown up bad, done bad, does bad, is bad.

Some of that I agree with, but I assign 99% of it to things our government has done *in the name of* America, most of which we citizens did not vote for.

Remove all that “bad”, and what you have is a 20 year old kid working hard and creating his own dream.

Notice there’s no mention of master’s degrees or tuition or student loans here.

70% of ALL jobs in the U.S. do not require a college degree.

Running a sandwich shop certainly doesn’t. That 20 y/o kid is living proof.

We also don’t know his earnings. And that’s where things get muddled.

My ‘American Dream’ is different from yours, and yours is different from his, and his is different from Elon Musk’s.

In between is a whole lotta fuss over earnings and net worth.

Dave Ramsey will be the first to tell you that anyone – ANYONE – can become a millionaire by spending less than they earn, having no debt, and saving 15% of their income.

Doesn’t happen overnight. Nothing does. Nothing good anyway.

What’s my American dream? What I said above: financial/economic freedom. What’s it look like? A mortgage-free home on a couple of acres, well water, solar power, chickens, goats, a vegetable garden, and lots of long walks with my wife around that property. Retirement income from my investments.

That’s tomorrow. I have to work for it. We all do.

But it’s still here. The American dream hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s available to anyone with patience, a willingness to work hard for a long time and live within their means.

What’s YOUR dream?