Inflation-adjusted cumulative growth of $10,000 — Stocks, Bonds & Cash (US, 1928–2025)
Period: 2016–2025 (10 yrs)
Click any asset to isolate — shows real + nominal side by side (when overlay is on)
Additional Series (optional)
Methodology: Real return per year = (1 + nominal return) / (1 + CPI inflation) − 1 (Fisher equation). Balances compound from $10,000. All returns are pre-tax (gross of income and capital gains taxes). Uninvested shows the real purchasing power of $10,000 held in physical cash earning 0% — eroded entirely by inflation each year. Market Returns overlay shows nominal (pre-inflation) compound growth for comparison.
Equity: S&P 500 total return proxy, 1928–2025.
Bonds: US 10-year Treasury total return, 1928–2025.
Cash: the greater of the 3-month US Treasury bill annual return or a competitive HYSA rate estimate, each year, 1928–2025.
Inflation: BLS CPI-U (December-over-December), 1928–2025.
International (optional): MSCI EAFE proxy, 1970–2025 — no data before 1970, so the line simply starts in 1970 rather than being estimated. The Custom Mix's “Intl % of Equity” split uses this same series from 1970 on and falls back to US equity for any earlier years in the selected period.
Small Cap & Gold (optional): Damodaran Online, 1928–2025.
Growth & Dividend (optional): Kenneth R. French Data Library (value-weighted annual factor portfolios), 1928–2025.
Sources: Damodaran Online,
Kenneth R. French Data Library,
BLS CPI-U.