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by: Alix Martichoux

Posted: May 5, 2024 / 10:04 AM EDT

Updated: May 3, 2024 / 03:21 PM EDT

(NEXSTAR) – “They say in thirty years a burger & fries could cost $16, a vacation $12,500, and a basic car $65,000.”

Those predictions were made in 1996, nearly 30 years ago, by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) in a magazine ad that recently went viral on Reddit for its scary accuracy.

A $16 burger and fries combo would be a good deal in America’s pricier cities these days. (A Five Guys receipt drew criticism this year for its $24 grand total.) The price of a vacation varies greatly (are you camping or gallivanting around Europe?), but the $12,500 price tag wouldn’t be shocking for an international trip for a family of four. The “basic car” price prediction is a little high if you’re talking about a standard sedan, but not too far off for some larger SUV or pickup truck models.

Despite their spot-on predictions, the experts at TIAA-CREF aren’t psychic — they’re just prepared.

“If you look at inflation, or a lot of financial data over time, it usually locked into a certain rate of inflation that’s — for lack of better term — predictable,” said Jeffrey Mellone, an executive wealth management advisor with TIAA.

Financial planners can look at how prices have grown over the past 10, 20 or 30 years and use modeling to predict how much movie tickets, groceries, and gas will cost decades down the line.

Those predictions are important, Mellone explained, because we need to plan for future cost-of-living, not current cost-of-living, when thinking about retirement. “For people that are transitioning into retirement, the question is: How do you really secure yourself to meet the immediate or unrelenting needs, and [take into account] how those get more expensive over time?”

One of the best ways to do that, Mellone said, is an income annuity, which converts your savings into guaranteed stable income for the rest of your life.

“I think a lot of people approach retirement and they say, ‘I have money, so I’ll be OK.’ What I’ve noticed in my time doing this work is money is not a plan. Money is just something that you have,” Mellone said. “What we do with clients when we’re working with them is we create a projection that brings them out to life expectancy.”

That way, in 30 years, you won’t have to do what the 1996 magazine ad sarcastically suggests: “You’ll eat in. You won’t drive. And you won’t go anywhere.”

Instead, hypothetically speaking, you’ll be able to drive your $100,000 car to the restaurant where you order your $34 burger and fries, and plan your next $26,000 trip without a care in the world.

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