For decades, the American dream seemed simple: Get a job, build a family, and work for a few decades before retiring at 65.
Haley Sacks — also known as Mrs. Dow Jones — says that sort of life path is now a bygone era. During an interview with Business Insider, Sacks said the biggest financial overlap between millennials and Gen Z is that they “inherited a system that is broken.”
“The rules for building wealth are made for an America that doesn’t exist anymore, because the American dream is very dead,” Sacks, a financial influencer and CEO of Finance is Cool, told Business Insider. “We aren’t going to stay at our jobs for 30 or 40 years. It’s not this easy path of maxing out your 401(k), buying a house, then you get to retire.”
Sacks said obstacles such as mounting student debt, rising inflation, AI’s impact on entry-level jobs, and wages out of step with current living costs have handicapped younger generations.
“Also, what we want from our lives is different. We want time. We want freedom. We want ownership. It’s so different from being locked up in this corporate structure,” Sacks said.
The pressure is pushing people to find alternative sources of income through things like side hustles. Others, she said, have turned toward gambling in the hopes of hitting it big.
Online sports betting has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. In February, the American Gaming Association said the US commercial gaming industry generated a record-high $78.72 billion in gross revenue in 2025.
Platforms like DraftKings have gone mainstream, securing partnerships with major professional sports organizations and pricey Super Bowl ad spots. Prediction markets — in which people purchase and sell contracts on future events — have added another path to get rich quick or go broke trying.
“The system is set up for me to lose. We’re on a floating rock. The world is burning. I might as well just try and gamble,” Sacks said.
She recognizes why people have adopted that mentality, but advises against it.
“I understand where that comes from, but there’s still so much opportunity to win, and that opportunity is never from these systems because you’re not the one who’s winning. The house is always winning,” Sacks said.
In fact, online sports betting has pushed some young Americans toward massive debt.
“It’s such an addictive cycle. Investing is very different than gambling. One is entertainment. One is wealth building,” Sacks said.
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