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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (18116)	3/5/2004 1:22:04 AM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

interesting. what do you estimate your personal inflation rate at? According to the CPI, the 15 years between 1988-2003 you would have seen an increase in expenses of around 58% due to inflation. My household budget has increased 35% between 1988-2003 while I increased my standard of living modestly. I eat in fewer expensive restaurants, but I still take very nice vacations and we entertain a lot in the summer, I have a nicer home than I did back then. I got cable TV and Internet four years ago after avoiding cable for 20 years. I'm lagging the CPI from 2-1% or more per year off the official CPI. My household budget includes mortgage pmts. (PITI), insurance (health, life, disability, liability, car), utilities & phone, cable & Internet, repairs & maint., food, restaurants & entertainment, travel (2 vacations per year), furniture, misc. household items, periodicals, medical expenses and tax preparation. The budget excludes some personal clothing, savings and investment, personal gifts for myself and my husband, large home improvements, auto purchases and other personal toys. In case you thinking this where the inflation might be lurking, I spend less on clothing than I did in 1988 (my running shoes cost half what they were in '88, I spend $12 on a pair of jeans I used to buy for $50) and we bought a new car for 15% less than I paid for a new one in 1989 (it can be done) this last year. Our various electronic toys are cheaper now than they were 15 years ago. Utilities, insurance and food, show the largest percentage increases (in that order). Here are the inflation rates for those years: U.S. Retail Price Inflation 1988-2003 1988 = 4.1% 1989 = 4.8% 1990 = 5.4% 1991 = 4.2% 1992 = 3.0% 1993 = 3.0% 1994 = 2.6% 1995 = 2.8% 1996 = 3.0% 1997 = 2.3% 1998 = 1.6% 1999 = 2.2% 2000 = 3.4000000000000004% 2001 = 2.8% 2002 = 1.6% 2003 = 1.9% Taken from here: halfhill.com