Purchasing Power Calculator
What is $10,000 from January 1990 worth today?
The conventional answer
Measured by US Consumer Prices
$26,294
observation August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What it bought then
GoldJanuary 1990 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)24.39 oz
Median new home sale priceQ1 1990 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.08 homes
Median US household income1990 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC0.3 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)$107,585
U.S. Large-Cap Equity Composite (total return)observation June 2026 · Robert J. Shiller, Yale University$447,640