Inflation is the rate of change. Think of it as the speedometer for prices.
US HOUSEHOLD PULSE
THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY,
FROM THE HOUSEHOLD INWARD
FROM THE HOUSEHOLD INWARD
OFFICIAL PUBLIC DATA
METHODOLOGY →INFLATION · 12 MONTHS—CPI-U YEAR OVER YEAR
CPI-U · LATEST—PRICE INDEX
M1 · LATEST—VERY LIQUID MONEY
M2 · LATEST—BROADER MONEY
MONEY LAB · PERSONAL ECONOMIC TRANSLATOR
What is your
money worth?
Choose a dollar amount and a year. Money Lab shows what that amount would need to be today to buy roughly the same basket of everyday goods and services.
OFFICIAL CPIFEDERAL RESERVE M1 / M2NO DATA STORED
START HERE · TRY ONE$75,000 · 2000 → TODAYLoading the latest official CPI endpoint automatically.
CPI is the index we compare across years. Think of it as the odometer showing how far prices have moved.
A $75,000 salary is nominally $75,000. That alone does not tell you what it can buy.
“Real” means adjusted for changing prices so different years can be compared more fairly.
01 · PURCHASING POWER
What would this salary be worth today?
Pick the salary and the year you want to compare with today.
2000→TODAY
SAME BUYING POWER TODAY—NOMINAL DIFFERENCE —PRICE-LEVEL CHANGE —$1 THEN IS —
Loading official CPI history…
FORMULA USED
Today’s equivalent = amount × (CPI today ÷ CPI then)CPI is the price index. If prices roughly double, the amount needed for similar buying power roughly doubles too.02 · REAL RAISE CHECK
Did your raise beat inflation?
First we ask what your old salary would need to be today. Then we compare it with your actual salary today.
2015→TODAY
BUYING-POWER CHANGE—NOMINAL RAISE —INFLATION HURDLE —NEEDED TODAY —
Nominal growth is not the same as purchasing-power growth.
FORMULA USED
Needed today = old salary × (CPI today ÷ CPI then)Then: real pay change = (today’s salary ÷ needed-today salary − 1) × 100.03 · CPI HISTORY
How have prices changed over time?
Inflation is the rate at which prices change. CPI is the price-level index underneath that calculation. When CPI rises, the same dollar generally buys less.
HOW TO READ IT100 → 200 means the measured price level doubled.CPI is the level; inflation is how quickly that level changes.
STARTING YEAR2000
THE HUMAN TRANSLATION
$100→—
—WHY THE CALCULATOR USES CPI
Today-equivalent dollars = old dollars × (CPI today ÷ CPI then)If CPI doubles, it takes about twice as many dollars to represent the same CPI-measured purchasing power.04 · THEN VS. NOW
Pick a year. See what changed.
Use one year as your starting point. We compare prices, money supply and median household income with the latest available readings.
STARTING YEAR2000
READ THIS FIRSTM1 = money that is very easy to spend, such as cash and highly liquid deposits.M2 = M1 plus additional savings-type balances such as small time deposits and retail money-market funds.
FORMULAS USED
$1 today-equivalent = CPI today ÷ CPI in selected yearM1/M2 % change = (latest value ÷ selected-year value − 1) × 100.05 · WHAT GOT MORE EXPENSIVE?
Inflation does not feel the same everywhere.
Headline CPI is one broad basket. Food, housing, transportation, medical care and education can move differently.
COMPARE FROM2000
SAME STARTING POINTEach bar shows the percentage change in that category's CPI index from the selected year to its latest available observation. This compares price indexes—not your personal spending.
Why this matters: your personal experience can differ from headline CPI because households buy different things in different amounts.
06 · MONEY SUPPLY
What are M1 and M2?
They are two ways the Federal Reserve groups money. M2 is the broader bucket.
NARROWERM1Cash + money you can access very quickly
⊂BROADERM2M1 + additional savings-type money
M1 ⊂ M2 ⊂ M3 (historically)M3 added large institutional money instruments to M2. It remains useful historical context, but the Fed no longer publishes a current M3 series.
2020 · M1 DEFINITION CHANGEDThe Fed reclassified savings deposits into M1. The visible jump is partly a measurement-definition break, not a one-day creation of spendable money.
M2 is generally more useful for long-run broad-money context. Neither M1 nor M2 is an inflation meter.
07 · CASH PURCHASING POWER
What if the cash stayed the same?
The dollar number stays the same. We show how much less it can buy after prices change.
2000→TODAY
WHAT THAT OLD CASH AMOUNT CAN BUY TODAY—NOMINAL BALANCE —REAL VALUE LOST —LOSS —
This isolates inflation only. It does not assume interest, investment returns, taxes or fees.
FORMULA USED
Buying power today = cash balance ÷ (CPI today ÷ CPI start year)The bank balance stays nominally the same; only its buying power is translated.METHODOLOGY
Simple math. Official inputs.
Plain-English rule: “Nominal” means the number of dollars. “Real” means adjusted for changing prices. Money Lab uses CPI ratios to translate between the two.
CPI: BLS CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted. Historical years use annual averages; “today” uses the latest available monthly observation.
M1 / M2: Federal Reserve H.6 seasonally adjusted money-stock measures via FRED. These describe monetary aggregates; they do not mechanically determine consumer-price inflation.
Privacy: Calculator inputs stay in your browser. They are not submitted to the site API or stored.
M3: The Federal Reserve stopped publishing the U.S. M3 aggregate in 2006, so Money Lab does not fabricate a current M3 value.
Price categories: BLS CPI-U major-group indexes for food & beverages, housing, transportation, medical care and education. Category changes are index comparisons, not estimates of any one household's budget.
Median household income: U.S. Census Bureau annual median household income in current dollars. Money Lab also compares its change with CPI to show an inflation-adjusted context.