Public good

After providing you with 29 ideas for building fortunes, we are giving our popular page Small Fortune a rest. Replacing it is this new page that will compare prices and earnings in the past with what they are today and what they would be in the future, if the growth rate of the past replicates in the future. The purpose: to drive home the importance of inflation accounting and long-term planning in family budget—concepts most critical, but least understood.

Then:  Rs 4,709 was the average monthly PSU salary in 1991-92.

Now:  By 2005-6 the figure touched Rs 23,056, an increase of 390% in 14 years.

Then:  If salaries increase at the same rate, an average public-sector employee will earn Rs 1,12,885 in 2020-21

Combined with perks such as subsidised housing, public-sector salaries may rival private pay scales. Knowledge — even a rough one — of future earnings can have a huge bearing on the kind and amount of investments you make at present.