Inflation and forecasting in Coda
How much you need monthly to pay the bills over time
I had a discussion with a friend on how much we would need long term to have a comfortable live. We discussed inflation rates and I assumed that 6% would be a fair amount. Until I did a bit of research… It seems that I am biased by the recent inflation spike. USA long term inflation is 3.1%, while in Europe the stats point to an even smaller number for the last 25 years. Generally speaking we pay each year a bit more for the same and it seems a save assumption that you should not go below 2.5%.
In a spreadsheet you would probably create a vertical structure showing per year relevant data. This works well and you can make a case for this kind of usage in Coda, certainly when you deal with data like below. The years are the main reference.
In Coda we follow a row based pattern (also explained here) to get a direct result. We use the function Power() to get the job done.
How to Coda your forecast?
I created a document with 4 elements:
- a slider for the inflation
- a text box for the years
- a text box for the monthly budget
- a table to execute the calculation
It looks like below and to see it at work, go here.
The IfBlanks() are used to have a default value (1 year and 100 euro per month). The 0.01 you need to turn the inflation assumption into a percentage value.
The inflation is a simple deduction and the average is the total budget divided by the total months (years * 12). This kind of financial planning is rather straight forward and very well to do. Try it out and you’ll see that you pick up the Coda logic quite fast.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have questions feel free to reach out. Though this article is for free, my work (including advice) won’t be, but there is always room for a chat to see what can be done. Besides you find my (for free) contributions to the Coda Community and on Twitter
My name is Christiaan and I support SMB with calculations (budgets and planning) and I prefer using Coda to get the job done.
Not to forget: the Coda Community provides great insights for free once you add a sample doc.
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