Opting for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage can be a savvy financial move, primarily due to the concept of leveraging cheaper, inflated dollars over time. Inflation erodes the real value of money, making today's dollar less valuable than one in the future. When you secure a fixed-rate mortgage, your monthly payments remain constant over the loan term, unaffected by inflation.

This means that as the years go by and the cost of living rises, your mortgage payments effectively become more affordable in real terms. What seems like a substantial monthly expense in the early years becomes a relatively smaller portion of your income as your salary grows over time.

This strategy essentially allows you to pay off your mortgage with dollars that have less purchasing power, saving you money in the long run. It's a financial hedge against inflation and can provide stability in an ever-changing economic landscape, making the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage an attractive option for many home buyers.

Unfortunately, though inflation makes the purchasing power of the dollar for other everyday goods less and less. You're paying off a house with "cheaper" dollars, but you are also buying less groceries with those dollars too.