Year-over-Year Trends
Comparing a period against the same period a year earlier, which removes seasonality.
Year-over-year comparison holds the calendar position fixed, which is what makes it useful. Household spending has strong seasonal structure, so December against November mostly measures December, while December against the previous December measures change.
The comparison worth making on income is against inflation rather than against zero. A 3% raise in a 4% inflation year is a real-terms pay cut, and it reads as progress on any nominal chart.
The measurement needs history to exist at all. A full year of data is the minimum for a single comparison, and structural patterns only separate from noise across several. This is a limitation of the method rather than of any particular tool.
Worked through
Three years of year-end balances
Month-to-month readings moved with markets. The annual comparison holds the date fixed.
- End of 2023
- $42k
- End of 2024
- $78k
- End of 2025
- $115k
- Average annual change
- +$36.5k
Two annual steps of $36k and $37k. The monthly series swung far more than either, and neither swing changed the trend.
Where this lives in Promi
Financial Profile page. Multi-year trends in the year-over-year section.
Related in Financial Profile & Comparisons
See your own year-over-year trends
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