Purchasing Power Calculator
What is $10,000 from January 1970 worth today?
The conventional answer
Measured by US Consumer Prices
$88,619
observation August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What it bought then
GoldJanuary 1970 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)285.71 oz
Median new home sale priceQ1 1970 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.42 homes
Median US household income1970 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC1.1 years
Had it been invested instead
A different question: not what money could buy, but what it would have become.
Goldobservation August 2026 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)$1,260,286
U.S. Large-Cap Equity Composite (total return)observation June 2026 · Robert J. Shiller, Yale University$3,821,642