Buying power is what your money can actually purchase. This calculator shows what a sum will buy after years of inflation, valued at today's prices. At 3% yearly inflation, $10,000 kept as cash for 10 years buys only what $7,441 buys now.
Here's how to read that result, which rate to try, and how a raise or savings interest changes the picture.
Nominal dollars versus real dollars
The number printed on a bill or a bank statement is its nominal value. What that money buys, measured at today's prices, is its real value. The calculator turns a future nominal sum into real terms:
Prices and buying power move by different percentages, so don't swap one for the other. At 3% a year for 10 years, prices climb 34.4%. Your money, though, loses 25.6% of its buying power, because you divide by 1.344 rather than subtract 34.4%. If prices double, each dollar buys half as much, not nothing.
How far does $10,000 fall in 10 or 30 years?
The table runs $10,000 of cash through three rates. 2% is the Federal Reserve's longer-run inflation goal. The Fed measures it with the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE), not the CPI. 3.4% is the CPI-U's rise over the year to August 2026. The CPI-U is the consumer price index for all urban consumers, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS reports that 12-month figure before seasonal adjustment. And 5% is a stress test.
| Inflation rate | Years | $10,000 buys what this buys today | Buying power lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2% | 10 yr | $8,203 | $1,797 |
| 2% | 30 yr | $5,521 | $4,479 |
| 3.4% | 10 yr | $7,158 | $2,842 |
| 3.4% | 30 yr | $3,668 | $6,332 |
| 5% | 10 yr | $6,139 | $3,861 |
| 5% | 30 yr | $2,314 | $7,686 |
At 3.4%, 30 years leave about 37% of the original buying power: $3,668. Over those 30 years, the gap between 2% and 5% is $3,207, nearly a third of the starting sum.
For money you'll spend in the next year or two, the latest 12-month CPI-U change is a sensible start. The BLS releases a new reading each month; September's is due on October 14, 2026. For decades ahead, no single rate is reliable, so run the calculator at a low and a high rate.
Did your raise keep up with prices?
A raise adds buying power only when it beats inflation. In the year to August 2026, average hourly earnings on private nonfarm payrolls rose 3.1%, the BLS reports. Over the same 12 months, the CPI-U rose 3.4%. Here's what a $60,000 salary buys after one raise, at the prices of a year earlier:
| Raise | New salary | Buys what this bought a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| No raise | $60,000 | $58,027 |
| 2% | $61,200 | $59,188 |
| 3.1% (average pay growth) | $61,860 | $59,826 |
| 3.4% (matches the CPI-U) | $62,040 | $60,000 |
| 5% | $63,000 | $60,928 |
Pay growth at the 3.1% average still fell short: $61,860 buys what $59,826 bought a year before. That's $174 less than the old salary bought. A raise equal to inflation only holds you level; anything above it is a real gain. In percent, your real raise is (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. The real rate of return calculator does that division for you.
Small gaps compound
Say you get a 2% raise every year while prices rise 3%. After 10 years, a $60,000 salary reaches $73,140. Measured at today's prices, it buys what $54,423 buys now, 9.3% less than at the start. The salary inflation calculator shows the pay you'd need just to keep pace.
Looking back: what did your money buy before?
Read the result backward, too. It also tells you what the same shopping cost that many years ago, if inflation averaged your rate. With the CPI-U's actual 3.4% rise, $1,000 in August 2026 bought what about $967 bought in August 2025.
For longer stretches, skip the guessed rate and use the CPI-U itself. In August 2026, the index stood at 334.980, where 100 is its average for 1982–84. That's about 3.35 times the base level. So $100 in August 2026 bought roughly what $29.85 did in 1982–84 (100 ÷ 3.3498). To turn an old price into today's money instead, use the inflation calculator.
Cash in the bank still loses, only more slowly
The calculator assumes your money earns nothing. A savings account pays some interest, which offsets part of the loss. The FDIC's national average savings rate was 0.37% in September 2026.
If that rate and 3.4% inflation held for a year, $10,000 would grow to $10,037. It would then buy what $9,707 buys today. Cash kept at home would buy what $9,671 does. Interest trims the loss from $329 to $293. To keep buying power whole, the account must pay at least the inflation rate, before any tax on the interest.
Pensions and payments that never rise
Income that stays flat loses buying power year after year. Think of a pension or annuity without a cost-of-living adjustment. Here's what a fixed $2,000 monthly check buys at 3% inflation:
What a fixed $2,000 monthly check buys
Valued at today's prices, with 3% inflation a year
After 30 years, the check covers only what $824 does today, about 41% of its starting value. Payments tied to the CPI rise with it instead. The BLS notes that the CPI is often used to adjust income payments, Social Security among them.
Fixed debts shrink the same way, in real terms. At 3% inflation, a fixed $1,500 loan payment due in 30 years weighs what $618 does today. The borrower repays in dollars that buy less.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index – August 2026 (news release, September 11, 2026)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation – August 2026 (news release, September 4, 2026)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions (last modified September 25, 2025)
- Federal Reserve, Why does the Federal Reserve aim for inflation of 2 percent over the longer run? (updated August 22, 2025)
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), National Rate: Savings, source FDIC (September 2026 observation, updated September 21, 2026)