The high cost of high living

Forbes’s exclusive cost of Living Extremely Well Index (CLEWI) tracks the annual price of 40 luxe consumer goods to determine what it takes to live the (really) good life. Though US inflation has been fat over the past year, CLEWI rose by 1.8 percent, just under the 2.2 percent increase in the total net worth of The Forbes 400. That 1.8 percent isn’t too bad, historically: Since CLEWI’s inception in 1982, our basket of goods has exceeded inflation by an annual average of 2.5 percentage points.