Inflation Calculator — Future Inflation
The forward-looking view. History cannot price next decade, so this page compounds an inflation rate you choose: at an assumed 3% per year, something costing $1,000 today is projected to cost $1,343.92 in ten years, while $1,000 held as cash would buy only $744.09 worth of today's goods. It is the quickest way to sanity-check long-range plans against the slow leak of buying power.
Inflation & buying power
Projected cost in 10 years
$1,343.92
+34.39% at an assumed 3% per year
Buying power
Historical conversions use published U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U annual averages (1913–2025); future projections compound the rate you assume. Both are buying-power estimates, not forecasts or financial advice.
Picking an assumed rate
The Federal Reserve targets 2% inflation over the long run, the 2000–2025 CPI average worked out to roughly 2.5% per year, and the 2021–2022 spike briefly ran far above both. A common approach is to project at 2–3% for central planning and stress-test at 4–5%. The point of the projection is the order of magnitude — small rate differences compound into large gaps over decades.
The page shows two complementary numbers: the future cost (what today's amount will likely cost) and the future buying power (what today's cash will still buy). They are mirror images of the same compounding, and the buying-power figure is the one that argues for not holding long-term savings entirely in cash.
Questions
- What will $1,000 cost in 10 years at 3% inflation?
- About $1,343.92 — a 34.39% cumulative increase. The same projection says $1,000 of cash will buy only about $744.09 worth of today's goods by then.
- Is the projected rate a forecast?
- No. It is your assumption, compounded. Actual future inflation is unknown; the historical view on the main page shows how variable it has been by decade.