Why everything seemed cheaper
Older relatives love to remember what things used to cost, and they are right: prices really were lower. But wages were lower too, and the gap is mostly inflation, the slow rise in prices that makes each dollar buy a little less every year. The banknotes above show what that means for money from your birth year. The first note is what the amount was worth then; the second shows how much smaller its buying power is now. Change the amount to try your first pay cheque, pocket money or a house price.
Use the slider to compare any year of your life with today, such as the year you got your first job or the year you left school.
How we calculate it
We use the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, published monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. To bring an amount forward, we multiply it by the latest index and divide by the average index of the year you choose. The average inflation rate is the steady yearly rate that would produce the same total rise. The stamp price is the first-class letter rate on your chosen date, and the minimum wage is the federal rate in effect on that date.
| Year | $10 then is worth today | Stamp | Federal minimum wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | $86.78 | 6¢ | $1.60 |
| 1980 | $40.89 | 15¢ | $3.10 |
| 1990 | $25.79 | 25¢ | $3.80 |
| 2000 | $19.57 | 33¢ | $5.15 |
| 2010 | $15.45 | 44¢ | $7.25 |
Worked example. For someone born on 12 April 1990, $10 in 1990 had the same buying power as about $25.79 in September 2026. A stamp then cost 25 cents, and the federal minimum wage had risen to $3.80 just eleven days earlier. In today’s money that wage would be about $9.80 an hour, more than the $7.25 federal minimum in place since 2009.
What it means for you
Inflation is why money left in a jar slowly loses value, and why long-term savings usually need to earn more than the inflation rate to grow in real terms. It also explains why salaries from decades ago sound tiny. Comparing in today’s money is the fairest way to know whether things have really become more or less affordable.
Questions people ask
How do you adjust for inflation?
We use the US Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An amount in your birth year is multiplied by today’s index and divided by the average index for that year.
Why use US prices?
The US index has the longest and most widely used record, back to 1913. Inflation in other countries has followed a broadly similar path since the 1990s but differed a lot before that, so treat the result as a US picture.
Does everything rise at the same rate?
No. The CPI is an average across a basket of goods and services. Some things, such as televisions and computers, have become far cheaper, while others, such as housing, health care and college tuition, have risen much faster than average.
What is the latest figure used?
The most recent monthly index published at the time of the last update, shown under the result. Earlier years use the annual average.
Sources. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U (via FRED, series CPIAUCNS); US Postal Service first-class stamp rate history; US Department of Labor federal minimum wage history. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.