How to Master Inflation
TLDR: Each round shows a real US price from the past (“a loaf of bread cost $0.12 in 1950”) and asks what it is worth today. The answer is the old price times that era’s inflation multiplier, computed from the real Consumer Price Index. Master it by memorizing a handful of era multipliers (1950 is about 13x, 1970 about 8x), multiplying the old price by the right one, and picking the closest option. The reveal prints the exact multiplier every round, so it doubles as a calibration tool.
What You’re Actually Learning
Inflation trains a specific kind of number sense: translating money across time. A dollar in 1950 was not the same dollar you carry now, and most people have no felt sense of how big that gap is. This game closes that gap with real data.
Every figure is verifiable, not invented. The game stores the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for each year and computes the answer as the old price times CPI-today divided by CPI-for-that-year. So a 1950 price is multiplied by roughly 313.7 / 24.1, which is about 13. You are not guessing trivia · you are applying a real ratio.
Each round gives you a familiar item, a price, and a year, then four choices. You pick the closest. The reveal then states the present-day value and the multiplier (“prices are roughly 13 times higher than they were”) · that multiplier is the whole skill in one number.
The CPI Mental Model
The CPI is just an index of average prices, pinned to 100 for the early 1980s. To move a price forward in time you scale it by how much the index grew. Today’s index sits around 314, so the further back you go, the smaller the old index and the bigger the jump.
You do not need the raw index values. You need the ratio between then and now · that single number is the “multiplier” for the era. Old price times multiplier equals today’s value. That is the entire calculation the game runs, and the entire calculation you are learning to do in your head.
One operation, every round: There is only ever one move here · multiply the old price by the era’s multiplier. Do not try to reason about why bread got expensive or whether wages kept up. The game asks one narrow question, and a single multiplication answers it.
Rough Era Multipliers to Memorize
These come straight from the CPI values in the game. Round them · the choices are spaced far enough apart that approximate is plenty.
The anchor table: 1950 is about 13x. 1960 is about 11x. 1970 is about 8x. 1980 is about 4x. 1990 is about 2.4x, and 2000 is about 1.8x. Memorize the four oldest first · they cover most rounds and they are the ones where intuition fails hardest. Notice the shape: the jumps are huge mid-century and shrink fast as you approach today.
Interpolate between anchors: If a year sits between two you know, split the difference. The multiplier does not climb evenly · most of the increase between 1970 and 1980 actually lands later, so lean toward the older, larger number when in doubt. But for the years the game actually uses, the table above is exact enough to win.
Estimate First, Then Pick the Closest
This is a multiple-choice game, not a free-entry one, so you never need an exact figure. You need a ballpark good enough to identify the nearest option.
The three-step routine: First, read the year and recall its multiplier. Second, multiply the old price by it · round both numbers to make the arithmetic easy. Third, scan the four choices and pick the one nearest your estimate. Example: gas at $0.36 in 1970, times 8, is about $2.90. Find the choice closest to $3 and commit.
Work a couple more to feel it. A new car at $2,600 in 1960, times 11, is roughly $28,000 · so reach for the choice in the high-twenty-thousands. A new house at $23,400 in 1970, times 8, is about $187,000 · so the answer sits near $190,000, not $50,000 and not $2 million.
Order-of-magnitude first: Before exact arithmetic, ask how many digits the answer has. A 1950 sub-dollar item lands in low single dollars; a mid-century car lands in tens of thousands. Getting the magnitude right eliminates two or three choices instantly, and then you only decide between the survivors.
Do not anchor to the old price. The biggest trap is letting the small original number drag your estimate down · “$0.12, so maybe $0.50?” The whole point is that the value multiplied many times over. Trust the multiplier, not the nostalgia. A dime comic from 1960 is worth over a dollar today, not a few cents.
Use the Reveal to Calibrate
The reveal is not just a score check · it hands you the exact multiplier every single round. That is a free training signal, so use it deliberately.
Compare your multiplier, not your dollar answer: After each round, check the multiplier the reveal printed against the one you used. If you multiplied by 6 and it says 8, your 1970 anchor is too low · adjust it on the spot. Correcting the multiplier fixes every future round in that era at once, which is far more useful than memorizing one item’s price.
Mastery is the multiplier, not the money: You have mastered this game when you can name an era’s multiplier before you finish reading the price · 1950 means 13, 1970 means 8, and the rest follow. At that point each round is one quick multiplication and a glance at the options. The streak counter takes care of itself, and you walk away genuinely able to translate old prices into today’s money.
A Short Practice Loop
Keep sessions to ten or fifteen rounds. Each round is a tiny lesson, and the multipliers stick faster with frequent short exposure than with one long grind.
For the first few sessions, say the multiplier out loud before you compute · “1960, times eleven.” Forcing the recall builds the reflex. Once it is automatic, drop the narration and just play, nudging your anchors whenever the reveal’s multiplier disagrees with you. Within a week the four oldest multipliers will feel like facts you have always known.
The deeper payoff lands outside the game. Once 1950 means thirteen and 1970 means eight, you read a vintage advertisement or an old salary and the modern equivalent appears almost automatically. That is the real skill · inflation stops being an abstract headline and becomes a number you can apply.
Inflation
A loaf of bread cost 12 cents in 1950 · guess what real old prices are worth in today's money, from the actual CPI
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