If inflation was steady at 2% per year, and you started working in 1975 at age 17 with a $10k salary—receiving a $1k raise each year—by 2025, at age 67, your salary would have reached $60k. However, due to inflation, the purchasing power of that $60,000 would be equivalent to just $21,850 in today's terms.

Spoiler - inflation is not steady and the way it’s being measured has always been manipulated 🤡