What if you invested $1,000 in 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) in 2015? (Inflation-Adjusted)

TLT · Bond · Adjusted to 2026 dollars using BLS CPI-U data

Nominal returns can be misleading over long periods. $1,000 in 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) in 2015 became $846 by 2026. Over those 11 years, cumulative CPI inflation reached 39% (BLS CPI-U). Restating the return in constant purchasing power, the real value of your gain in 2015 dollars is $609, a real annualized return of -4.3%.

Nominal final value

$846

-15.4% total return

Real value (2015 dollars)

$609

-39.1% real total return

Real annualized return

-4.3%

vs. -1.5% nominal annualized

Cumulative CPI-U inflation since 2015: 39% (1 dollar in 2015 = $1.39 in 2026)

Year-by-Year (Inflation-Adjusted)

$1,000 in 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) since 2015, values in constant 2015 dollars

Year	Nominal Value	Real Value (2015 $)
2015	$1,000	$1,000
2016	$944	$931
2017	$912	$879
2018	$956	$894
2019	$976	$891
2020	$1,194	$1,074
2021	$1,263	$1,081
2022	$1,201	$942
2023	$925	$699
2024	$864	$634
2025	$816	$587
2026	$847	$609

Inflation adjustment uses BLS CPI-U annual data, deflated to 2026 dollars. Nominal stock data from Yahoo Finance (split-adjusted closing prices). Real values are expressed in constant 2015 purchasing-power dollars. For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. See our methodology and full disclaimer.