The Fine Print
Last updated 2 September 2026
By using The Dollar Time Machine you agree to the terms below. They are short, and they mostly say one thing: this is a history tool, not a financial one.
The Dollar Time Machine provides historical monetary calculations for educational, historical, and informational purposes only.
Every figure the site produces is a comparison between two points in a historical price or index series. It describes what has already happened to the dollar — nothing more.
Calculations do not constitute investment advice, financial planning, or trading recommendations. Consult a licensed financial professional before making asset allocation decisions.
This applies to every yardstick on the site, including gold, silver, the Dow, the S&P 500 and Bitcoin. That a dollar would have grown a certain amount in one of them is a fact about the past, not a suggestion about where to put your money. It says nothing about what any of those assets will do next.
The same goes for the forward-looking projections. Any figure past the last year of real data is an illustration of a growth rate you chose. It is arithmetic run forward, not a forecast, and it is not a prediction of returns.
While historical data points are regularly updated, we make no guarantees regarding real-time market accuracy or future asset performance.
The underlying series come from public sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the National Association of Realtors, the LBMA and published index histories. Sources are revised, methodologies change, and some of the older series are stitched together from more than one measure — the notes beneath each yardstick spell out the specific seams and caveats. Current-year figures are partial-year averages, not settled annual numbers, and no price shown here is a live market quote. Verify anything that matters against the primary source before relying on it.
The calculator and the share cards it generates are free to use, including in posts, articles and classrooms. Please don’t alter the figures on a card and pass it off as ours. You agree not to attempt to disrupt the site or to use it in a way that breaks the law.
The site is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the site or from decisions made on the basis of figures shown here.
These terms may be updated from time to time. The current version always lives on this page, with its date at the top, and continuing to use the site means you accept the version in force.
Questions about these terms, or a correction to any of the underlying data, are welcome through Kerry’s Substack.