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Scenario tools

Inflation and Purchasing Power

Inflation

Inflation and Purchasing Power

See how inflation can change what your money buys, using your own estimate or historical US inflation data.

Inflation inputs

This is your planning assumption, not a BLS inflation forecast.

Results

Enter a valid amount and period. Historical calculations require an end year after the start year.

Choose a past comparison or a future assumption

At an assumed 3% annual inflation rate, a $10,000 purchase today would cost about $13,439 in ten years. A fixed $10,000 received in ten years would have purchasing power of about $7,441 in today's dollars under that same assumption.

The first number inflates a cost; the second discounts a future amount. Do not combine them as two separate deductions from a savings plan.

Historical mode compares the selected US CPI-U annual averages. It is not a month-by-month inflation quote, and it does not establish how your own rent, insurance or grocery bill changed. Future mode applies the rate you enter; that rate is not a BLS forecast.

When comparing a future goal with an investment projection, label both in the same dollars. If one is in today's purchasing power and the other is a future account balance, the apparent shortfall or surplus can be misleading.

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