Thursday, April 18, 2013

What Will $1 be Worth in the Future? (calculator)


This calculator:

  • Converts current prices to equivalent prices any number of years in the future
  • Compares purchasing power today to purchasing power in the future
Enter an amount, how far into the future you want to compute, and the inflation rate you want to assume.  Below we see that at 5% inflation for 20 years, an item that costs $100,000 now will cost over $265,000.  That means that 20 years from now the purchasing power of $100,000 will have been reduced by over 62%; $100,000 then will only be able to buy what we can buy now for about $37,000. Be sure to enter inflation percentages as decimal amounts -- that is, 0.05 for 5%, 0.025 for 2.5%, etc. 



Notes: Enter data only in the tan cells. On some phones you may need to double click to enter data. On some computers, you may have to enter some fields more than once for it to "take." Please leave a comment if you are having problems.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

How Much Will Your Bond/CD be Worth in N Years? (calculator)

This Calculator Computes the Future Value of Your Bond/CD for Any Amount, Number of Years, and Interest Rate


Enter data only in the colored cells below.
Note: normal/annual compounding is once a year; semi-annual is 2 times/year; quarterly is 4 times/yr; etc. Be sure to enter interest rates as decimal amounts - 0.03 for 3%, 0.025 for 2.5%, etc.




Friday, February 22, 2013

How Much Will You Receive in Social Security Income?

(Last updated December 2020)
Social Security is a key component of most people's retirement plan. Here's a quick estimate of the retirement benefits under the current rules.


Percent of Salary Replaced by Social Security Retirement Benefits


How much will I receive in Social Security? what percent of my income will Soc Sec replace? 2020
Percent of Salary Replaced by Social Security (approx)


The Percentage of Your Salary Replaced by Social Security is Determined by Your Salary Level

The chart above (click to expand) shows the approximate percent of your salary that Social Security will replace if you take full retirement at age 66. The actual calculation is complicated, and is based upon your lifetime earnings. For these estimates, I have assumed that you earn your current salary, adjusted for inflation, for the duration of your career (all previous and future years). The point here is to see the big picture; for an estimate specific to your situation see the links at the end of the post.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Inflation Calculator: Convert Dollars from 19xx to Now

Last updated Sept. 2020

Convert Dollars From One Year to  Equivalent Dollars in Another Year
Calculate Inflation Rates Between Two Years


This calculator is especially useful for converting salaries and asset values.

The brown/tan cells are input fields. For example, enter the start and end years and immediately see the inflation rate between the two years. Enter a price and convert between the start year price and end year price (e.g., from 1900 to 2019 dollars -- or vice versa).



Notes: On some phones you may need to double click to enter data. On some computers, you may have to enter some fields more than once for it to "take." Please leave a comment if you are having problems.

Friday, January 25, 2013

What Will $100 be Worth in 10 - 20 Years?

This post estimates the future value of a dollar for the next 1-50 years, for inflation rates ranging from 1% to 10%. The chart works not just for $100, but for any amount -- $1, $1,000, $10,000, $100,000....  And, it works for 5, 10, 20, 30 ... anything up to 50 years. (This is a companion to a previous post which compares today's dollar to earlier years.)

Inflation is one of the biggest risks that current and future retirees face. Given today's life expectancies, even relatively low rates of inflation can devastate the purchasing power of a pension or uninvested cash during your retirement years. How great could the impact be? See below.

Try my new interactive future inflation impact calculator.  It does the same calculations as the graph below, but for any number of years, and for any inflation rate. Then come back to this post; graphs are still better for seeing the big picture.

What Will $100 be Worth in 5, 10, 20, 30... 50 Years?


What will a dollar be worth 5, 10, 20, 30 years from now in future?
What Will $100 be Worth in N Years?


The Impact of Inflation on the Future Purchasing Power of a Dollar

Over the last 100 years, U.S. inflation has averaged about 3%/year. As you can see from the graph above (click to expand), even at these apparently benign rates (the blue line), within 20 years the purchasing power of a fixed pension will be almost cut in half. Twenty years is not a long retirement these days; most advisors recommend that you plan for thirty. Some retirements last even longer.