What Will $1,000 Be Worth in 10 Years?
At 3.5% inflation, $1,000 will buy what $709 buys today in 10 years — a loss of $291.
Money sitting still loses value even when the number on the statement does not change. At 3.5% inflation, the $1,000 you have today will buy what $709 buys now once 10 years have passed — $291 of purchasing power gone, or 29% of what you started with. Stretch that to 20 years and it is worth $503; to 30 and $356.
The same arithmetic runs the other way for prices: something costing $1,000 today would cost about $1,411 in 10 years at the same rate. That is why cash held long-term is not actually safe, and why a savings rate below inflation still loses money. The calculator below is set to $1,000 at 3.5% — change the rate to match your own expectations, or flip the mode to work out future costs instead.
Results
Future Buying Power
$7,089
Lost Purchasing Power: -$2,911
Purchasing Power Breakdown
What $1,000 will be worth
At 3.5% annual inflation, in today’s purchasing power.
| After | Worth in today’s money | Purchasing power lost | What $1,000 of goods will cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | $842 | $158 | $1,188 |
| 10 years | $709 | $291 | $1,411 |
| 15 years | $597 | $403 | $1,675 |
| 20 years | $503 | $497 | $1,990 |
| 25 years | $423 | $577 | $2,363 |
| 30 years | $356 | $644 | $2,807 |
Frequently Asked Questions
- At 3.5% inflation, about $709 in today’s purchasing power — you lose $291, or 29% of the value. The dollars themselves are still there; what changes is how much they buy. Over 20 years the same $1,000 falls to $503, and over 30 to $356.
- The rate matters enormously over a long horizon. After 10 years, $1,000 is worth $820 at 2% inflation, $709 at 3.5% and $558 at 6%. Two percentage points of difference costs you $262 across a decade — which is why the rate you assume matters as much as the amount.
- By earning a return above the inflation rate. A savings account paying less than 3.5% loses value in real terms no matter what the balance says. Assets that historically outpace inflation — index funds, inflation-linked bonds, property — carry more short-term risk, which is the trade. Keep the emergency fund in cash anyway; that money is buying availability, not returns.
- Long-run US inflation has averaged roughly 3%, and central banks target 2%. This page uses 3.5% as a middle assumption. For a plan you care about, run it at both 2% and 6% rather than trusting one number — the gap between those two results is the honest range.
Purchasing power by amount
Amounts