Festivities marking the nation's 250th birthday have already begun across the country. One thing that's as old as America itself is the idea of the American Dream. But with rising housing costs, inflation, student debt, and growing economic disparities, that traditional vision seems more and more out of reach for many.So, where does the American Dream stand today? Consulting firm Simon-Kucher has a new study out that looks to answer that question. To discuss the findings, “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams spoke with Shikha Jain, lead partner for consumer North America at Simon Kucher. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.Kimberly Adams: So, what does the American dream mean for people today?Shikha Jain: Americans increasingly believe that there's no single path to achieving the American dream. So, Americans are building personalized and individualized paths based on flexibility, financial control, and quality of life. Americans are more willing to have flexibility over income. They're comfortable taking on more debt as a tool, and some of them are even putting off retirement and rent for home ownership reasons to avoid having a big mortgage. And so there's so many aspects where Americans are deprioritizing the future to make the present and the now work for them.Adams: And all of these are economic choices, and sort of how you choose to spend your money day to day, and in the long term. I wonder how you see how these varying versions of the American dream differ from maybe how this was viewed in the past?Jain: In the past, the American dream was about getting ahead. Today, when you ask Americans, what is the American dream, it's a lot more personalized. There's still some of these core aspects of owning a home, raising a family, success through hard work and financial stability, but social status or recognition, material goods, all of those don't matter as much as things like personal freedom and independence. Adams: I saw in your report that there are some generational differences in how folks see the American dream. What kind of trends stood out to you there? Jain: More than half of Gen Z and millennials strongly or somewhat associate with it versus baby boomers that actually associate with a lot less. In addition, as we think about certain trade-offs, younger consumers and younger Americans are saying that things like high cost of living, insufficient income or savings, job insecurity, uncertainty about the future, that is what is really creating barriers for them to aspire and achieve the American dream.Adams: It strikes me that a lot of the ways you're describing folks' perception of the American dream has to do with more about how you're living than what you're buying. What do you think that tells us about the American economy?Jain: Everyone really cares about this feeling of connectedness, this feeling of the now versus the future. It's all about spending today. Baby boomers, actually, given that they're in retirement age or close to retirement age are the ones that are really trying to maximize the most out of life. Gen Z, on the other hand, yes, they're enjoying life now, but they're also finding ways to reduce stress, and so younger folks are just prioritizing today and sacrificing their long-term financial goals to improve, improve quality of life in the present, or also reducing their savings, taking on debt to maintain the lifestyle that feels aligned with their goals and identity, and that is so different from Gen X and Baby Boomers, right? So, one in two millennials and Gen Z will make that trade-off, versus only one in four or one in five will do that.