Lifestyle Inflation Calculator

Use our Lifestyle Inflation Calculator to see how much of the rise in your spending is lifestyle — spending more as you earn more — and how much is just prices going up, whether your savings rate kept up, and the most you can spend now while saving as much as before.

The calculator brings your earlier spending to today’s prices first. If you spent $3,500 a month five years ago and prices rose 3% a year, the same lifestyle would cost $4,057.46 now. Spending $4,900 today means lifestyle inflation of 20.77%: of the $1,400 increase, $557.46 is rising prices and $842.54 is lifestyle.

It also compares your savings rates. On $5,000 of take-home pay, $3,500 of spending saved 30%; on $7,000 now, keeping that 30% means spending no more than $4,900 a month. Real income growth shows whether your pay rose faster than prices too — when lifestyle inflation is higher, your spending is outgrowing your income.

A rise in spending can have other causes, such as a bigger household, and one average inflation rate is a simplification, so treat the results as an estimate. To see how fast prices are rising for your own spending, use our Personal Inflation Rate Calculator; to check your savings rate against common benchmarks, our Savings Rate Calculator.