Narcis Miclaus

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Inflation impact calculator

See what inflation does to your money over time — and why not investing is the most expensive decision you can make.

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The eurozone has averaged around 2% historically. Recent years have been higher — adjust to your expectations.

%

Nominal return before inflation. A global equity index has averaged roughly 8–10% historically. This is not a guarantee.

After 25 years, €5,224 of your cash's purchasing power vanishes to inflation. Meanwhile, investing would grow your money to €35,057 in today's terms — a difference of €30,281.

Cash (purchasing power)

What your starting cash can actually buy over time. The number on the bill stays the same, but the bread gets smaller.

Invested (real value)

Your portfolio's value deflated back to today's prices — what it could actually buy if you cashed out.

Invested (nominal value)

The raw number in your brokerage account. Looks great, but part of this growth is just prices going up.

Cost of not investing

The gap between invested real value and cash purchasing power. This is the price you pay for keeping money under the mattress.

Investing might not make you rich. But not investing guarantees you get poorer — slowly, silently, every single year.

Why this matters

Most people think of inflation as a macroeconomics concept — something the ECB worries about, not them. But inflation is the one tax you pay even if you earn nothing: it quietly shrinks what your savings can buy, year after year, without sending you a bill.

At a steady 3% inflation, €10,000 today can only buy what €7,374 buys in 10 years. In 25 years, it's worth €4,776. The money didn't go anywhere — it just stopped being worth as much.

Investing doesn't beat inflation — it just stops losing to it

A global equity index has historically returned around 8–10% per year in nominal terms. Subtract inflation and you're left with roughly 5–7% of real growth — actual purchasing power you didn't have before.

That's not a path to quick riches. It's the difference between your money slowly dying and slowly growing. The chart above makes this visible: the cash line sinks while the invested line climbs. The gap between them is the cost of doing nothing.

Caveats

  • This calculator uses a constant inflation rate and a constant return rate. Reality is messier — both bounce around every year. The point is the shape, not a precise forecast.
  • Taxes and fees are not included. European capital gains taxes (26% in Italy, for example) will take a bite out of your returns when you sell, but even after tax the invested path beats cash in every realistic scenario.
  • This is not financial advice. It's a calculator with a point of view: that doing nothing with your money is itself a decision, and an expensive one.