See what today's costs will be in the future and how much purchasing power money loses to inflation over time.
At 6% inflation, something that costs 50,000 today will cost about 89,500 in 10 years. The same 50,000 kept as cash will buy only what about 27,900 buys today.
The real return on an investment is its return minus inflation: (1 + return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1.
Choose Past years (US CPI data), enter $100 and pick 2000. The calculator scales it by the change in the official Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, refreshed automatically every day.
Use your country's long-run average: roughly 2–3% for the US and Europe, and 5–6% for India. Education and healthcare costs often rise faster.
The return after inflation. An FD paying 7% with 6% inflation gives a real return of under 1%.