$100 today won't be $100 in 10 years. See how inflation erodes your savings using official CPI projections. Track your money's real value, year by year.
At a 3% annual inflation rate, $100 today will be worth only about $74 in 10 years — a 26% loss in purchasing power. This is why financial planners recommend investing in assets that outpace inflation rather than keeping large sums in cash. The long-term average inflation rate in the US is 3.2% (1913-2024), but it has fluctuated significantly, peaking at 23.7% in 1920 and reaching recent highs of 9.1% in June 2022.
| Years | At 2% Inflation | At 3% Inflation | At 5% Inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | $9,057 | $8,626 | $7,835 |
| 10 years | $8,203 | $7,441 | $6,139 |
| 15 years | $7,430 | $6,419 | $4,810 |
| 20 years | $6,730 | $5,537 | $3,769 |
| 30 years | $5,521 | $4,119 | $2,314 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Data (1913-2024). Historical average inflation rate calculated from consumer price index records.
Inflation is one of the biggest silent threats to long-term savings. Even at a mild 2% rate, purchasing power is cut roughly in half over 30 years. Always evaluate returns in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, and use this inflation calculator to see how rising prices erode your savings over time.
The most common way people use an inflation calculator is the reverse question: what did money used to be worth? The table below shows the approximate today-value of $100 from selected years, based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, BLS annual averages, rounded). Two patterns stand out: the 1970s erased nearly two-thirds of the dollar's value in a single decade, and post-2000 inflation has been comparatively gentle — though the 2021-2023 spike was the sharpest three-year stretch since the early 1980s.
| $100 in… | Approx. Value Today | Cumulative Inflation |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | ~$810 | ~710% |
| 1975 | ~$590 | ~490% |
| 1980 | ~$390 | ~290% |
| 1985 | ~$295 | ~195% |
| 1990 | ~$245 | ~145% |
| 1995 | ~$210 | ~110% |
| 2000 | ~$185 | ~85% |
| 2010 | ~$147 | ~47% |
| 2020 | ~$123 | ~23% |
These are national averages for a basket of goods — your personal inflation differs. Healthcare and college tuition have outrun CPI for decades, while televisions and clothing have often gotten cheaper in quality-adjusted terms. For amounts other than $100, scale linearly: $12,000 from 1975 is roughly 120 times the $100 figure. The calculator above uses the same CPI methodology, so any year pair can be computed precisely rather than estimated from this table.
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