Understanding the inflation and appreciation assumptions
Your rates for inflation, appreciation, COLA and returns on your accounts play an important role in shaping your long-term financial outlook.
You have multiple options for setting your rate assumptions. You can:
Apply one of Boldin’s historically-derived default rates
Set a custom average or optimistic/pessimistic rate
Applying Boldin’s default rates
Boldin's default inflation, appreciation and COLA rates are based on historical data:
| Average Rate | Benchmark | Period |
General Inflation | 2.54% | Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) | 1994 - 2024 |
Medical Inflation | 3.36% | Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) Medical Costs | 1994 - 2024 |
Social Security COLA | 2.54% | Social Security COLA (Based upon CPI-W) | 1994 - 2024 |
Housing Appreciation | 4.40% | S&P Case-Shiller Index (1987-2024) | 1987 - 2024 |
Work and Passive Income Growth | 2.54% | Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) | 1994 - 2024 |
Pensions and Annuities COLA | 0.00% | n/a | n/a |
Setting custom rates
Rate assumptions in Boldin include general inflation, medical inflation, Social Security COLA, and housing appreciation. If you'd like to use your own figures instead of the defaults, you can enter a custom rate for any of these.
Entering a custom average rate
Enter your preferred average rate, and Boldin will automatically generate optimistic and pessimistic rates at ±20%.
Example: Enter a 3% average general inflation rate, and Boldin calculates:
Pessimistic: 3.6% (3% × 1.2)
Optimistic: 2.4% (3% × 0.8)
Entering custom optimistic and pessimistic rates
If you'd rather define your own range, enter both rates and Boldin will infer the average.
Example: Enter a 2% optimistic rate and a 4% pessimistic rate, and Boldin sets your average at 3%.
How do inflation and appreciation assumptions impact your projections?
Each of these rates play a key role in shaping your long-term financial outlook. Understanding the options available for setting your rates allows you to control the assumptions driving your financial plan. We use these rate assumptions to determine:
General inflation
Annual increase in recurring expenses
Annual increase for tax brackets, IRMAA brackets, contribution limits
Annual increase in standard contributions
Medical inflation
Annual increase in medical and long term care expenses
Social Security COLA
Annual increase in Social Security benefits
Housing appreciation
Annual increase in real estate values
Work and Passive Income growth
Annual increase in income
Annual increase in income-linked contributions
Pension and Annuity COLA
Annual increase in benefits
NOTE: Our updated default rates became effective April 29, 2025. The previous default rates were:
| Optimistic | Average | Pessimistic |
General Inflation | 2.00% | 2.50% | 3.00% |
Medical Inflation | 2.50% | 4.00% | 5.50% |
Social Security COLA | 2.00% | 1.25% | 0.50% |
Housing Appreciation | 3.00% | 2.50% | 2.00% |
Work and Passive Income Growth | 3.00% | 2.50% | 2.00% |
Pensions and Annuities COLA | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Accounts and Assets Rate of Return | 5.00% | 3.50% | 2.00% |