Why YOU Need To Be a Millionaire

Inflation rates
Image by cynic shots via Flickr

If you think that you will be ok financially without having at least a million dollars, you may be wrong.

Why?

Because in 1950 a million dollars was a huge amount of money. Today that million dollars is not worth the same. Our money loses it’s purchasing power. We all hear about inflation and how we need to take it into account, but how often do you run the numbers?

Million Dollar Math

Let’s say in 1950 $1.00 = $1.00

Fast forward 60 years and $1.00 in 2010 = $9.15 (1950′s dollars)

Here is a great website I found to calculate inflation.

What does that mean?

That means $109,289 in 1950 now equals $1,000,000.

The Future of a Million Dollars

If the rate of inflation stays the same as the previous 35 years, when I am hitting retirement, if I saved $1,000,000 in for retirement in today’s dollars, it will only be worth $240,384 in 2045.

Can you live on $240,000 for your retirement*?

The average life span for a woman like me is 81 years old. That would be 18 years for me and my husband to live on $13,333 a year. That’s not even calculating inflation for those 18 years! Even with social security (if it’s around) that is living below the poverty level.

So what does this mean? This means we should all be under the category of Eventual Millionaire. So how are you going to earn your million?

*The stock market has it’s ups and downs. We all know that, and we know that the previous record shows an uphill track. But what millions of people are realizing (my parents included) is that the stock market crashing a few years before retirement is not a good thing! So in my example I remove the possibility of keeping up with inflation using the stock market. There is never a guarantee with anything money related!

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$109,289 in 1950 now equals $1000,000
8 Comments - Leave a comment!

8 Responses to “Why YOU Need To Be a Millionaire”

  1. Friday Round-Up - Get Motivated Edition said...

    [...] I frequently run into Personal Finance bloggers all over the place. I’ve been running through the Internet Business Mastery Academy for a new side project I’m considering and ran into Jaime Tardy who just launched her site Eventual Millionaire. It’s a great start and a beautiful layout so stop by and give here a little encouragement. I liked her last post Why YOU Need To Be a Millionaire. [...]

  2. Wojciech Kulicki said...

    What a cool concept for a blog! :) Welcome to the community!

  3. Jaime said...

    Thanks! It’s so nice to have such a warm welcome :)

  4. Rodney Yeisley said...

    Great post thanks, all the best. I really like reading this blog, it has a good position on my favourites bar! Rodney Yeisley

  5. Jaime said...

    Thanks so much Rodney! I love hearing that :) If there are any topics you would love to see – just email me any suggestions! jaime @ eventualmillionaire . com

  6. Theodora Tersteeg said...

    You`re right

  7. Mark Foo | 77 Success Traits said...

    Hi Jaime,

    I think there’s a mistake here. It should be:

    • $1.00 in 1950 = $9.15 in 2010 and not $1.00 in 2010 = $9.15 (1950′s dollars)
    • $109,289 in 1950 now equals $1000,000 and not $1,000,000 in 1950 now equals $109,289

    And that means $1,000,000 in 2045 is equivalent to $240,384 in 2010, which you’re right.

    Present dollars will always be worth less than dollars in the past due to inflation and not the other way round.

    Cheers~

    Mark

  8. Jaime said...

    Thanks for catching that Mark! I appreciate it. :)

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