Calculator
Retirement inflation calculator
Enter today’s yearly spending and how far ahead to look. We show the future cost at your inflation rate and through the worst inflation on record.
What $60,000 a year buys today would cost about $125,600 a year in 25 years at 3% inflation. A fixed income of $60,000 would buy only 48% as much.
- Your rate, 3%
- Worst 25 years on record
- Flat (no inflation)
What inflation did to $60,000 of spending in past periods
| Period | Prices rose | Per year | Same lifestyle cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Inflation (1966–1981) | +196% | 7.0% | $177,384 |
| Oil shocks (1973–1982) | +130% | 8.7% | $137,793 |
| The 1990s (1990–1999) | +33% | 2.9% | $80,068 |
| The 2000s (2000–2009) | +28% | 2.5% | $76,994 |
| The 2010s (2010–2019) | +19% | 1.8% | $71,401 |
| Post-pandemic spike (2021–2023) | +18% | 5.6% | $70,657 |
What this means
At 3% a year, prices roughly double every 24 years. Over 25 years, the lifestyle that costs $60,000 today would cost about $125,600.
History has been less smooth. In the worst 25-year stretch since 1928 (1966–1990), prices rose 321%. A typical 25-year stretch saw prices rise 119%.
Social Security rises with inflation, but most pensions and annuities don’t. Retirement plans that keep spending steady in today’s dollars, like every calculator on this site, already build inflation in.
Why inflation matters more in retirement
While you work, raises tend to keep up with prices. In retirement, your savings have to do that job. At 3% inflation, a lifestyle costs about twice as much in 24 years, roughly the length of a typical retirement.
Inflation was also the real culprit in the worst historical retirements. Retirees in the late 1960s faced a decade in which prices doubled while stock and bond prices went nowhere.
Which income keeps up
- Social Security gets a cost-of-living adjustment each year.
- Most pensions and annuities are fixed, so they lose buying power every year.
- Stocks have outpaced inflation over long periods, but not in every decade.
- Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) rise with CPI by design.
Assumptions
- Inflation compounds at 3% a year. Historical figures use the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), December to December.
- Your actual inflation may differ from CPI, for example if health care is a large part of your spending.
New to a term? See the retirement income glossary.
Common questions
What inflation rate should I use for retirement planning?
Many planners use 2.5% to 3%. U.S. CPI has averaged about 3% a year since 1928, with long stretches far above and below.
Do the other calculators on this site include inflation?
Yes. Our other calculators work in today’s dollars and raise spending with actual historical inflation every year, so inflation is already built in. This page is the exception: it shows future dollars on purpose.
Related tools
How we calculate this
Future cost is today’s spending compounded at your inflation rate. Historical comparisons compound actual yearly CPI changes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics over every 25-year window since 1928.
Data: S&P 500 total returns, 10-year Treasury and 3-month Treasury bill returns as compiled by Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern), and CPI-U inflation from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1928–2025 (2025 preliminary). Read the full methodology and limitations.