A common topic that I’ve noticed keeps coming up whenever meeting family and friends is how much the cost of living has increased in the last few years. Many people have had to change their spending habits and in some cases quite drastically. Activities that used to be considered norms have now become luxuries such as eating out. This is not unique to the UK, and the same can be seen in other countries.
Inflation affects those with less, more severely and can cause chaos when it becomes uncontrolled. I lived in Zimbabwe during a period of hyperinflation when I was a teenager which was absolutely crazy. I remember it got to a stage where quotations for some items were only valid for a certain amount of hours as the prices would change. Before I went abroad to Malaysia to study, I took my friends out for a meal and had to take a rucksack full of cash with me to the restaurant so that I could pay for the bill. We were all rich in a worthless currency :).
Alhamdulillah for most of us, while it is painful, current inflation hasn’t yet gotten as bad as the above. May Allah protect us. Ameen.
For those blessed to have savings in cash, it is good idea to invest it in the Shariah Compliant Investments available to you, so that you can avoid having inflation erode your wealth. These days you don’t need a big amount to invest in different Shariah Compliant asset classes.
Additionally, try to give more charity where you can, to assist those struggling. I recently assisted for one day at a weekly soup kitchen and was suprised with the amount of people who queued up in the cold to collect a free hot meal. Furthermore, charity acts as another way for you to protect your wealth.
