Inflation: The Silent Wealth Destroyer

A 100 gm pack of Maggi cost ₹10 in 1999. In 2026, ₹15 buys you only 70 gm. That is not a 50% price increase — it is 114%. Inflation hides in plain sight.

Every BeSampann workshop begins with the same small experiment. We ask the room two questions about a packet of Maggi noodles — which brand brought it to India, and in what year. A few hands go up. Then we ask a third question: what does one packet of Maggi cost today? Almost everyone gets close.

Then we show the table. 1983: 100 gm for ₹2.50. 1999: 100 gm for ₹10. 2026: 70 gm for ₹15.

At first glance the last jump looks small — ₹10 to ₹15, a 50% increase over 27 years. Not great, but not alarming. Then we do the arithmetic honestly. In 1999 you paid ₹10 for 100 grams. Today, on a per-gram basis, 100 grams of Maggi would cost roughly ₹21.40. The real price increase is not 50%. It is 114%.

The shrinking pack is the trick. Manufacturers rarely raise prices in ways you can feel. They shrink the pack, tweak the recipe, redesign the label. The number on the price tag barely moves, but the value you receive quietly erodes. Multiply that pattern across every category you buy — groceries, fuel, school fees, rent, medical care — and you have a working definition of inflation.

There is a phrase we use in the workshop that seems to land: inflation is like termites. You do not notice it every day. You do not hear it working. But over the years it quietly eats away at the purchasing power of the money you have worked hard to earn.

The uncomfortable implication is this: if your money is not growing faster than inflation, you are not standing still. You are becoming poorer every year, in slow motion. Money left in a savings account earning 3-4% is being outpaced by inflation running at 6-7%. The rupee amount looks the same. The life it can buy is smaller.

This is why financial literacy matters — not as a hobby, not as an aspiration, but as a defence. Understanding inflation is the first step. Building income streams that outpace it is the second. Everything else in personal finance is really just a variation on that one idea.

If a workshop can leave a room of young professionals with one shift in attention, it is this: the price on the label is not the price you are paying. Learn to read the shrinking pack.