Answer:
How much do you make in interest in a year?
$ 1100
How much would you need to have made for your spending power to keep up with inflation in that year?
$ 1782
How much buying power did you lose in that year because of inflation?
$ 682
Explanation:
Your interest formula is given to you.
Interest in a year = principal (the amount invested) * rate (the interest rate) * period (the time you're measuring)
Interest = 55,000 * 2% * 1 year = 55,000 * 0.02 * 1 = $1,100
How much would you need to have made for your spending power to keep with inflation? Your interest rate would have needed to match the inflation rate, otherwise prices are going up faster than you're saving.
Required interest = 55,000 * 3.24% * 1 year = 55,000 * 0.0324 * 1 = $1,782
How much buying power did you lose? The difference between your required interest and your actual interest.
Buying power lost = 1,782 - 1,100 = $682. You lost this much in buying power.
Hope that helped :)
