The value of money
What is money from 1990 worth today?
Measured by U.S. consumer prices, a dollar from January 1990 takes 2.63 dollars to match today. Below, the standard amounts — and what they bought at the time.
1990 amounts, in today’s money
$1.00$2.63
$10.00$26.29
$100$263
$1,000$2,629
$10,000$26,294
$100,000$262,936
CPI-U, all items, not seasonally adjusted · January 1990 to August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What $10,000 bought in 1990
Consumer prices answer what money buys in a shop. These answer what it commanded of something real.
GoldJanuary 1990 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)24.39 oz of gold
Median new home sale priceQ1 1990 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.08 median new homes
Median US household income1990 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC0.33 years of household income
Had $10,000 been invested in 1990 instead
A different question again: not what money could buy, but what it would have become. Equity figures include reinvested dividends.
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