I was cruising the financial blogs and came across this cool description of inflation (below). Inflation is the silent killer of our savings and our retirement plans. You can calculate how much you are going to need per year all you want but without adjustment for inflation you may find yourself a bit short in funds when it comes time to start drawing years down the road. $50,000 today will not buy the same amount of goods as it will 15 years from now. An interesting quote from this article states

A so-called “mild” rate of inflation of 3% per year leads to a 56% rise in prices over a 15-year period. Even a “low” rate of inflation of 2% per year leads to a 35% rise over that same period.

So if you want to retire on $50,000 per year in 15 years, then you better scale that up to $78,000 so you can maintain the same lifestyle.

Inflation will continue to exist as long as governments retain the fiat money system.

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