Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 9 terms
The rate at which the general price level rises, reducing what a given sum of rupees can buy.
The risk a fixed deposit does not remove. The statement balance only ever rises, which is exactly why thirty years of erosion goes unnoticed.
The extent to which a company can pass rising input costs on to customers.
A cost spike is a free experiment. Margins hold if there is pricing power, compress if there is not.
Consumer price inflation, published monthly; the RBI targets 4% with a 2–6% band.
Above the band the RBI raises rates, and that is the channel that reaches your portfolio. Consumer companies take a second hit through input costs they cannot always pass on.
Spending rising alongside income, raising the corpus needed to stop working.
Every ₹1 lakh of permanent annual spending adds about ₹28 lakh to your target.
The commodity India imports the large majority of and pays for in dollars, making its price an input into inflation, the trade deficit and the rupee at once.
The loop is the point: a spike widens the deficit, which weakens the rupee, which makes the same oil dearer in rupee terms. It hurts paints, tyres, airlines and logistics, and helps upstream producers.
Return before adjusting for inflation.
The number everyone quotes. It is not the number your goals are funded from.
Return after tax and inflation — the change in what your money can actually buy.
A 7% FD in the 30% slab with 5.5% inflation returns about −0.6%. The rupees grew; the purchasing power did not.
The percentage of a corpus drawn each year, usually adjusted for inflation.
The famous 4% comes from US data. Indian inflation has run higher, so be more conservative.
A traditional life policy combining modest cover with a low, largely guaranteed return.
A poor bond with a little cover attached. Returns land near 4–5%, which inflation removes.