How does inflation affect my family?

Inflation is the rise of price of goods or services. It can also be considered as decrease of the value of currency.

2007 2.8%
2006 3.2%
2005 3.4%
2004 2.7%
2003 2.3%
2002 1.6%
2001 2.8%
2000 3.4%
1999 2.2%
1998 1.6%

In last 20 years from 1988 to 2007, the average inflation rate is 3.1%. Thus, if your savings and investments did not produce 3.1% return, you're losing money to inflation.


Data source: U.S. Department of Labor - ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt