Glen,
When I use your calculator, I get Tony's results ($277.17). The following is copied directly from the web page results using initial year "1970", initial amount "50.00", and desired year "2009":
"Current data is only available till 2008. In 2008, $50.00 from 1970 is worth: $277.17 using the Consumer Price Index"
What numbers are you using with the calculator?
I followed up with a "sanity check" on the numbers to make sure the results are reasonable. The $277 figure corresponds to an average compounded annual inflation rate of 6.3% over 28 years. Your $3300 figure corresponds to an average compounded annual inflation rate of 16.1% over 28 years.
$50 * (1+0.063)**28 = $276.63
$50 * (1+0.161)**28 = $3,267.93
Since I don't believe we've averaged 16% annual inflation for the past 28 years, I believe the $277 is closer to the right answer.
Steve, N9IP
--
Steve Belter (seb@wintek.com)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On
> Behalf Of Glen Zook
> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 1:55 PM
> To: Amsat BB; Anthony Monteiro
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Life Members
>
> If you use the calculator that I referenced you will come out with the
> figures that I quoted. There are several ways of measuring the worth and
> those are shown on the calculator. Using the consumer price index as the
> basis the figures are correct. Using other things as the basis you will
> definitely come up with different figures.
>
> Glen, K9STH
>
> Website:
http://k9sth.com
>
>
> --- On Sun, 1/17/10, Anthony Monteiro
aa2tx@comcast.net wrote:
>
> > From: Anthony Monteiro
aa2tx@comcast.net
> > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Life Members
> > To: "Glen Zook"
gzook@yahoo.com, "Amsat BB"
amsat-bb@amsat.org
> > Cc: aa2tx@comcast.net
> > Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 11:27 AM
> > At 12:03 PM 1/17/2010, Glen Zook
> > wrote:
> > > ...
> > > Based on the consumer price index, the $50 that I
> > spent for my life membership back around 1970 is today the
> > equivalent of right at $3300! That is 66 times in
> > "absolute dollars". Compare that to the present life
> > membership fee of $880. That means that we who
> > obtained our life memberships back in the early 1970s paid
> > 3.75 times what new life members are paying.
> > >
> > > If you don't believe these figures then do the
> > calculations on the following website:
> > >
> > >
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/
> >
> > ...
> >
> >
> > Hi Glen,
> >
> > I appreciate your sentiment about the fact that
> > AMSAT needed the money back then but I don't think
> > your math is correct. $1 in 1970 is equivalent to
> > around $5.50 - $6.00 in todays dollars depending
> > on how you compare it.
> >
> > Using the "Measuring Worth" web site, the CPI
> > equivalent value of $50 in 1970 is $277.17
> > in 2009 dollars.
> >
> >
> > 73,
> > Tony AA2TX
> > AMSAT VP Engineering
