The value of money
What is money from 2020 worth today?
Measured by U.S. consumer prices, a dollar from January 2020 takes 1.30 dollars to match today. Below, the standard amounts — and what they bought at the time.
2020 amounts, in today’s money
$1.00$1.30
$10.00$12.99
$100$130
$1,000$1,299
$10,000$12,985
$100,000$129,852
CPI-U, all items, not seasonally adjusted · January 2020 to August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What $10,000 bought in 2020
Consumer prices answer what money buys in a shop. These answer what it commanded of something real.
GoldJanuary 2020 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)6.41 oz of gold
Median new home sale priceQ1 2020 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.03 median new homes
Median US household income2020 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC0.15 years of household income
Had $10,000 been invested in 2020 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)$28,258
U.S. Large-Cap Equity Composite (total return)observation June 2026 · Robert J. Shiller, Yale University$24,971