The American Dream is dead

Good afternoon, and welcome to our Thursday issue. Life looks vastly different than it did 50 years ago, and new norms are forming faster than most of us can keep up with. Today's stories look at three of them, and what it takes to stay ahead.

On The Money Today:

Let's get into it.

The study behind this shift — and what younger generations say they want instead — is in today's Must Read.

A 27-year-old moves back home with a steady job but won't pay a cent toward rent, groceries or utilities. One coach says the reason is rarely defiance — it's shame. Experts lay out a framework where rent is non-negotiable, but how it gets paid can flex: cash, savings, or labor like tackling years of home projects no one got to.

The world's richest man says he doesn't really invest in the traditional sense — his fortune came from building companies, not picking stocks in them. So when he was asked which two companies he'd buy purely to make money, his answer got attention: he thinks AI and robotics will eventually account for almost all economic value created going forward.

Most investors don't have Musk's timeline or risk tolerance, which is why a personal advisor match through Vanguard can help determine how much AI exposure actually fits your goals.

If you'd rather hedge against a concentrated bet on tech, a gold IRA through Goldco adds a store of value that doesn't rise or fall with the AI trade. And for something that's quietly outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995 with almost no correlation to it, fractional art investing through Masterworks is worth a look too.

The math used to work: buy young, build equity, retire on schedule. At a record age of 40, the median first-time buyer has already lost over a decade of that runway. A new study says their kids and grandkids have quietly stopped believing the formula still works — and they're not staying quiet about what they want instead.

Where do you land? Join the conversation on the article and see what other readers think.