 TITLE: How to Survive Inflation CONTENT: What Is Inflation?\n------------------\nInflation is the measure of rising prices over a period of time, and economists determine inflation by comparing price indexes that group and track the cost of select items.\nOne of the most widely used measures of inflation is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and measures how the cost of a \"basket\" of consumer goods and services paid by urban consumers changes over time. The groups within the basket include food, housing, transportation, medical care and more. In just the past year, from June 2020 to June 2021, the index's rate of growth was 5.4%—helping to fuel inflation concerns in recent months.\nAs the cost of goods increases, purchasing power decreases. As an example, $1.00 in January of 2001 has the same buying power as $1.49 in January 2021—meaning that you need to spend $1.49 today to buy what a dollar could fetch two decades ago. END