Same life, new price.
You priced a life once: rent, food, the number that meant freedom. Prices moved while you saved. Pick the country and the year you priced it, and see the same life in today’s money, from the official price data, not a feeling. History only, never a forecast.
Explain it like I’m five
Money slowly buys less: the same basket of groceries costs a bit more every year. So a number you wrote down years ago has quietly shrunk. This page looks up how much prices really rose where you live, and rewrites your old number in today’s money.
New to all of it? Start from zero: ten short lessons that assume nothing.
The Old Number
The euro area is the average of the whole currency zone. Pick a country for its own data.
The same life, today
€37,875
- Extra every year
- €7,875
- Onto the ×30 target
- €236,250
- A 12-month cash buffer now buys
- 9.5 months
Cash held since 2020, before any interest it earned.
Prices in the euro area rose 2.8% in the year to June 2026.
Since 2020: up 26% in total, about 4.0% a year.
What moved
Advanced
Want your own personal rate, set category by category? The ECB runs one, in 23 EU languages. This page does the FIRE half: what the years did to your number. The ECB’s personal inflation calculator
Don’t feed this back into the calculators.
Every calculator on this site already works in today’s euros: the returns they assume are real returns, inflation taken out. This page is for restating an OLD number, a life you priced years ago, in today’s money. Restate it, then use it as it is. Adding inflation on top of a real return counts the same loss twice.
Eurostat’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), the same measure across Europe: your start year’s average prices against the latest month, data through June 2026. The UK is the one exception: Eurostat’s UK data runs through November 2020, so its numbers here are the ONS’s CPI, the UK’s own build of the same measure. National averages, not your street. Rents and utilities are in it; buying a house is not. History, never a forecast. Not advice.
Checked July 2026. Prices from the official public series, Eurostat’s HICP and, for the UK, the ONS’s CPI, dated above. What your money should do about any of it depends on your life and your country, and this page doesn’t know either. Not advice.
The link carries these exact numbers; nothing about you is stored.
Put this tool on your site
<iframe src="https://thefireexit.com/embed/the-old-number" style="width:100%;border:0" height="1900" title="The Old Number — free FIRE tool by The FIRE Exit" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<script>addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e.origin!=="https://thefireexit.com")return;var d=e.data;if(d&&d.type==="fx-embed"){document.querySelectorAll('iframe[src^="https://thefireexit.com/embed/"]').forEach(function(f){if(f.contentWindow===e.source)f.style.height=d.height+"px"})}})</script>
<p>Calculator by <a href="https://thefireexit.com/tools/the-old-number">The FIRE Exit</a></p>On WordPress: paste into a Custom HTML block. (WordPress.com's free tier strips iframes. That's their rule, not a bug here.)
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is a ratio of two official index readings: your start year’s average prices against the latest month. I compute nothing else: no weights, no models, no forecasts. If the number surprises you, it isn’t my estimate you’re arguing with; it’s the price history.
Already in today’s euros
Every calculator on this site runs in real terms: the returns they assume are returns after inflation, so their answers always land in today’s money. That’s why this page exists apart from them. It restates old numbers; their numbers never need inflating. The guide has the whole of it.
The reading half, why real returns already carry inflation and what these numbers don’t cover, is the inflation guide.
Checked July 2026
The indices are Eurostat’s own HICP series, fetched from its public API and cross-checked against Eurostat’s separately published annual rates before anything renders; the UK’s are the ONS’s, checked the same way against its own published rate. One set of maths produces every figure here, on the share card and on the country pages, and the data month is printed on the page.
Nothing to sell
No affiliate links. No paywall. Nothing on this page is for sale; the data is Europe’s own, and it stays free.
Not advice
Prices from the official public series, Eurostat’s HICP and, for the UK, the ONS’s CPI, dated above. What your money should do about any of it depends on your life and your country, and this page doesn’t know either. Not advice.
Common questions
- Should I increase my FIRE number for future inflation?
- No. The calculators here already work in real terms: the returns they assume are after inflation, so their answers are in today’s euros and never need inflating. What does need attention is an old number: if you priced your life years ago, restate it in today’s money first, then use it as it is. Adding inflation on top of a real return counts the same loss twice.
- Which inflation data does this use?
- Eurostat’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), the same measure built the same way across Europe, which is what makes countries comparable. The one exception is the UK, where Eurostat’s data runs through November 2020: its numbers are the ONS’s CPI, the UK’s own build of the same measure. The page shows the exact month the data runs to, and I refresh it on a schedule.
- Why is my inflation different from the headline rate?
- Because the headline prices everyone’s basket, not yours. The index is a national average across everything households buy; your own mix of rent, food, transport and the rest almost certainly isn’t average. The “What moved” bars show which categories did the damage, and for your own precise rate the ECB runs a personal inflation calculator where you set the basket category by category.
- Does this include house prices?
- Rents yes, buying no. The index prices rent and utilities, but not the price of buying a house, which lives in a separate owner-occupied index this page deliberately doesn’t use. If you own outright, your true inflation runs different from the headline. The inflation guide has the honest paragraph.
- Can it tell me future inflation?
- No, and it never will. Everything here is history: what prices actually did, from the official series. Nobody can tell you the next decade’s inflation, and a plan shouldn’t need the guess. Plan in real terms and the question dissolves into the return assumption, which is already after inflation.
Nothing here is financial or investment advice: it’s arithmetic and education. Every tool runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved. Decisions about your money are yours, ideally with a licensed adviser. I’m happily not one.
Bring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.