FTF Finance / Purchasing power
Inflation & purchasing power
See what a purchase might cost in the future, and what an unchanged amount of money might buy.
Explore a price-change scenario
No exchange conversion. Currency selection does not select a country or its inflation rate.
Not sure? Start with the illustrative 3% scenario, then compare 2% and 5%. These are examples, not forecasts or official recommendations. The same rate is applied every year. A negative rate models falling prices.
Help me estimate a rate from a past price change
Compare the same item or basket, with consistent quantity and quality, across two dates. This estimates its compound annual price change, not general inflation or a future forecast.
Estimated compound annual price change: 3.7137%.
Future cost of the same purchase
USD 1,343.92
Unchanged money: purchasing power today
USD 744.09
Cumulative price change
34.39%
Purchasing-power change
-25.59%
What these results mean
At an assumed 3% annual price change for 10 years, a purchase costing USD 1,000.00 today would cost USD 1,343.92.
If you instead keep the amount fixed at USD 1,000.00, with no interest or returns, it would buy the equivalent of USD 744.09 in today's money. The money balance is unchanged; its purchasing power changes.
Price-change and purchasing-power-change percentages use reciprocal calculations, so they are not generally equal and opposite. This is a scenario, not a prediction.
Year-by-year comparison
Year 0 is today. Future cost and fixed-money purchasing power are different measures.
| Year | Future equivalent cost | Purchasing power today | Price change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | USD 1,000.00 | USD 1,000.00 | 0% |
| 1 | USD 1,030.00 | USD 970.87 | 3% |
| 2 | USD 1,060.90 | USD 942.60 | 6.09% |
| 3 | USD 1,092.73 | USD 915.14 | 9.27% |
| 4 | USD 1,125.51 | USD 888.49 | 12.55% |
| 5 | USD 1,159.27 | USD 862.61 | 15.93% |
| 6 | USD 1,194.05 | USD 837.48 | 19.41% |
| 7 | USD 1,229.87 | USD 813.09 | 22.99% |
| 8 | USD 1,266.77 | USD 789.41 | 26.68% |
| 9 | USD 1,304.77 | USD 766.42 | 30.48% |
| 10 | USD 1,343.92 | USD 744.09 | 34.39% |
Assumptions and limitations
Future equivalent cost = starting amount × (1 + annual rate)^years. Fixed-money purchasing power in today's money = starting amount ÷ (1 + annual rate)^years. Rates entered as percentages are divided by 100 for calculation.
The annual rate is constant and compounded annually. Scenarios are illustrative, not forecasts, official targets, or recommendations. No live or historical inflation data is fetched.
The optional helper uses ((current price ÷ earlier price)^(1 ÷ elapsed years) − 1) × 100. It estimates price change for the entered item or basket, not economy-wide inflation. Applying the helper rounds its rate to four decimal places.
The projection supports 0–100 whole years, rates from -50% to 100%, input amounts up to 100,000,000, and monetary results up to 1,000,000,000,000. Negative rates model falling prices. Zero starting amounts and zero-year scenarios are supported.
Calculations retain floating-point precision until display. Monetary results are rounded to currency precision; percentages are rounded separately. Tiny changes may display as zero. Currency changes do not convert amounts or select a country's inflation rate.
No interest, investment returns, taxes, fees, income changes, or household-specific spending weights are modeled. Entries remain in page state and reset on refresh; they are not saved to an account or database.
Educational scenario only. Not personalized financial advice or an economic forecast.