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Visualise How Inflation Eats Your Cash

See the real purchasing power of cash erode over 10, 20, or 30 years, and calculate how investing protects and grows your retirement savings.

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Hedge Against Inflation Automatically

NovaPlanner builds inflation indexes into all your retirement targets so you always plan with real purchasing power, not nominal illusions.

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Inflation & Saving — Common Questions

Nominal value is the face value of money (e.g. a $100 bill is always nominally $100). Real purchasing power is what that money can actually buy, adjusted for inflation. If inflation runs at 3% for 24 years, your $100 bill will only buy $50 worth of goods.

If you ignore inflation, you will severely underestimate your retirement expenses. A lifestyle that costs $40,000/year today will cost $96,000/year in 30 years at a 3% inflation rate. Your retirement portfolio target must grow accordingly.

It is safe from short-term market crashes, but it is guaranteed to lose value over the long term. Even in high-yield savings accounts, interest rates rarely beat inflation after taxes. Over 20-30 years, cash is one of the riskiest assets due to guaranteed purchasing power decay.

By investing in productive assets that grow with the economy, such as broad-market stock index funds (ETFs) and real estate. These assets tend to raise their prices and dividend payouts in response to inflation, preserving your long-term purchasing power.