What $10,000 in Bitcoin Could Be Worth in 10 Years

Think about the last time you filled your gas tank.

As the total climbed higher, the price of gas was impossible to miss. What was easier to miss was what that higher price meant: The buying power of every dollar in your paycheck was slowly being eroded.

Last week, the national average reached $4.33 per gallon, according to AAA. Before the war with Iran began, it was $2.98.

If you drive a car with a 15-gallon tank, that’s an extra $20 every time you fill up. Fill up twice a month, and you spend nearly $500 more a year to make the same trips. 

You feel the same squeeze when you pay your electric bill, book a flight, or walk through the grocery store. 

The Labor Department reported last week that inflation rose to 3.7% in September. Food prices rose 2.5%. Energy prices climbed 20.4% over the past year. Airline fares leaped 22.4%.

If prices rose 3.7% per year for the next decade, $10,000 sitting idle would still look like $10,000 on your statement. But it would buy only about $6,954 worth of today’s goods.

That’s the trap inflation sets: Your account balance can stay exactly the same while the money in it buys less and less.

Now, I’m not predicting inflation will stay at 3.7% for 10 years. I’m showing you why letting your money stand still can leave you behind on your financial or retirement goals. 

So what can you own that has a real chance of outrunning inflation over the next decade?

My answer may sound crazy at first.

But JPMorgan has now run the numbers – and reached the same conclusion.

JPMorgan Runs the Math