Purchasing Power Simulator
Inflation & Purchasing Power Simulator
Explore the difference between having more currency units and actually being able to buy more. Adjust inflation, wage growth, savings returns, and time to see how purchasing power changes.
Purchasing Power Laboratory
Choose a preset experiment or construct your own scenario using the controls below.
Your Scenario
What Will $100 Buy?
Follow the real purchasing power of the same $100 as general prices rise over time.
The Cost of the Same Basket
The items do not change. Only the number of currency units required to purchase them changes.
Representative basket
Same representative basket
The Wage / Price Race
Rising wages do not necessarily mean rising real income. What matters is how wages perform relative to prices.
Savings: Nominal Balance vs Real Value
An account balance can rise in nominal dollars while its real purchasing power falls.
The number shown on the account statement after interest is credited.
What that future balance can purchase when expressed in today's purchasing power.
Purchasing Power Remaining
Compare the original purchasing power of your cash savings with its modeled real value after the selected period.
Purchasing Power Timeline
Move through time to observe how income, savings, prices, and the purchasing power of $100 evolve together.
Your Purchasing Power Outcome
The final result separates nominal dollar growth from changes in real purchasing power.
This simulator uses constant annual rates and compound growth to isolate the purchasing-power relationship. Real households experience changing prices, wages, taxes, interest rates, consumption patterns, and asset returns. The purpose of the model is not to forecast a specific household's future, but to demonstrate why nominal dollar amounts alone do not measure purchasing power.