What will $20 dollars be like by the end of 2026?

Edited with Mematic

I continue to ponder how some people conveniently forget that money will no longer have the same monetary value as time goes by. I say some people because those people seem to be so comfortable with their safe, secured, constant monthly salary and have no desire to gain more per month because they feel ok today.

If you were handed a $20 bill next year, it would not actually be worth $20 anymore because of a devaluation of currency caused by inflation.

Economists estimate inflation will reach around 2.4% to 2.8% between now and 2026, which may not seem like much, especially when you take into consideration all the other devaluation to the dollar. The dollar is already weaker than it used to be, now it is about to get even weaker still.

The estimate data was taken from Investopedia: Will 2026 Bring Inflation Relief?

By December of 2026, a purchase that you can make for $20 today will require about $21.15 to buy that same thing. So as long as you make the same so called comfortable salary, you're little by little getting poorer and infact the bar for middle class or wealthy is being raised.

Think about the frustration you feel when you can afford a product or an item today for $20 but cannot afford to buy that product because you do not have enough money to buy that same thing and have to leave out something, the milk, the bread. Your quality of life is dropping slowly.

People keep talking about how levels of
inflation has gone down, as if that alone means something great. That is not true, decreasing inflation means the rate at which prices rise has slowed, not stopped. And don't mistake reduce inflation to be decreasing prices of consumer goods.

If we return to 1995, the purchasing power of that $20 bill was double its value or purchasing power as it will have by the end of 2026. You still have $20 in cash, but are no longer able to afford the same amount of goods with the same $20 in cash.

I just feel as though we are expected to keep pretending that this is okay. And that, a $20 bill is still a $20 bill even though it is now just enough to get a couple of snacks.