“Wish I had a million dollars, hot dog!”

 Do you ever watch old movies and when they talk about money, it just sort of jumps out to you? Like Young George Bailey here wishes he had a million dollars. I think that’s something that just about everybody would love to have to their name. But a million dollars back in 1946 when this whole movie was being shot, that meant something very different than what it does in 2025 because of the purchasing power of a dollar back then. If we use the consumer price index as a measure for inflation, a million dollars in 1946 would be equivalent to 18 million in 2025 dollars.

Christmas movies are a great way to get snapshots and time as to how the value of money is degraded in the financial world.

You need to make sure that your plan keeps up with inflation so that you don’t wake up wide-eyed at some point, realizing that things are not quite what you thought they were. 

“That’s from a very dear friend of mine. Daddy, Teacher says ‘Every time a bell rings, An angel gets his wings.’ That’s right. That’s right.