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See the silent tax on your cash, year by year.
Inflation compounds just like interest — against you. At 3% inflation, prices double roughly every 24 years and cash loses a quarter of its purchasing power per decade. This calculator shows both directions: what today's amount will cost in the future, and what today's cash will effectively be worth. Essential context for salary negotiations, retirement planning, and savings decisions.
Salary negotiations ("is my raise real?"), retirement planning ("what will $4,000 a month buy in 2045?"), and understanding why grandparents quote prices in dimes. People use this to translate money across time — the one conversion every financial decision quietly assumes.
US inflation has averaged roughly 2–4% over recent decades, with occasional spikes well above. Use 3% for baseline planning, 4% for conservative planning, and check current CPI figures for short-term estimates.
Only if raises match or exceed it. A 2% raise in a 4% inflation year is a real-terms pay cut of about 2%. Run your salary through this calculator with and without the raise to see the truth.
Moderate inflation is normal in growing economies and eases debt burdens (fixed-rate mortgage payments shrink in real terms). It is cash and fixed incomes that suffer — which is why long-term savings belong in assets, not mattresses.