Your parents' safest investment is quietly losing them money every year.

my dad has had money sitting in a fixed deposit for over 20 years.

he thinks it's the safest thing he owns.

last week i showed him the math and he went quiet.

here's what the bank never puts on the poster.

his FD pays around 7%. tax takes 30% of that, so he actually keeps about 4.9%. inflation runs around 6%.

4.9% minus 6% is negative 1.1%.

every single year, that "safe" money buys less than it did the year before. the number on the statement goes up. what it can actually buy goes down. he's not saving. he's slowly paying for the feeling of safety.

and this is the part that annoys me most.

nobody lies to him. they just never do the second half of the math. the bank shows him 7% and lets him fill in the rest. the FD isn't a scam. it's just sold as protection when it's really a slow leak.

the thing i keep coming back to:

safe and safe-feeling are two different things. a risk you can't see is still a risk. it just bills you later. inflation is the only tax nobody votes on and everyone pays.

i'm not saying pull the money out. i'm saying know what it's actually doing. my dad kept his FD. but now he keeps it on purpose, not by accident. that's the whole difference.

most people my parents' age were never taught this. most people my age won't be either.

go do this math with your parents this week. i'm serious.