See how inflation erodes your purchasing power over time and calculate the real value of your money in the future.
Updated October 2026Built and checked by MaverickHow it's calculatedReport an error
Purchasing power
$43,084
in 20 years, 56.9% lost
Equivalent future cost
$232,106
What costs $100,000 today
Years to halve
16.5y
At this rate
Real return
2.59%
beats inflation
Same nominal dollars: fewer goods and services as inflation compounds.
Top: what your statement says. Bottom: what those dollars actually buy.
Nominal, what the balance says
Real, in today's dollars
Three views of the same investment. The real value is what matters for buying things.
Inflation is the 'silent tax' on your wealth. At today's inflation rate of 4.3% a year, $100,000 today would have the purchasing power of about $43,100 in 20 years. If your savings or investments aren't growing faster than inflation, you're losing money in real terms. This calculator shows how inflation eats into your purchasing power over time and whether your investments are beating it, at a rate you choose or along the path Australian prices actually took over recent decades.
Prices rose 4.3% in the year to September 2026, going by the ABS's monthly measure. The trimmed mean, which leaves out the biggest price swings, was 3.6%.
Amy, 35, thinks she'll need $60,000 a year in retirement at 67, in today's dollars. She assumes 4% inflation.
At 4% inflation, $60,000 a year in today's money is about $210,500 a year in 32 years. Put the other way, $60,000 a year then would buy what about $17,100 does today.
Ben has $200,000 in a savings account earning 4.5%, with inflation at 4%.
Ben's real return is about 0.5% a year before tax, so after 20 years his $200,000 would be worth about $220,100 in today's money. Interest is also taxed, which can leave a real return below zero.