Your savings are losing value
Mats Kramer
30 april 2026
4 min read
Your savings are losing value
Every single day. And even a 3% interest rate does little to change that.
You’ve worked hard to build your wealth. Perhaps you sold a business, saved diligently for years, or reached a point in your life where you accumulated a substantial amount. And now it sits in a savings account. Safe, you think. Accessible when you need it.
But while you sleep, something quietly eats away at your wealth. Something that rarely makes the headlines, yet does its work day in, day out: inflation.
The silent erosion of your purchasing power
Let’s be honest: saving feels familiar. You see a balance, you know what you have. But that sense of security is misleading. Because what your balance doesn’t tell you is what it will actually buy next year.
In recent years, inflation in the Netherlands has often exceeded savings interest rates. In 2022 and 2023, the gap was even dramatic: consumer prices rose at levels we hadn’t seen in decades, while savings accounts offered virtually no returns.
And although inflation seemed to cool down for a while, geopolitical realities are now reversing that trend. Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, pressure on oil prices, and uncertainty around global trade routes are pushing commodity prices up again. There is a real chance that inflation will rise significantly in the near future.
That makes it all the more urgent to protect your wealth against it. Because as long as the interest on your savings account remains lower than actual inflation, you are losing purchasing power. Not in theory, but in practice. Every month.
Source: Raisin
Wat betekent dit concreet?*
Although the balance grows on paper, purchasing power declines due to inflation. You have more euros, but you can do less with them. That is not a pessimistic scenario; it is simply arithmetic.
*All amounts are indicative and intended for illustrative purposes.
Example calculation
| Initial capital | €500,000 (savings interest rate of 2.5% per year) |
| After 10 years in a savings account | ± €640.000 |
| Average inflation | 3% per year |
| Real value after 10 years | ± €476,000 (in today’s purchasing power) |
Why a low bank interest rate is not enough
Recently, savings interest rates have been cautiously rising. Some banks now offer around 2.5% to 3% on fixed-term deposits. That sounds attractive compared to the years of near-zero interest we were used to. But it is an optical illusion. After deducting inflation and wealth tax (box 3), you are in many cases left with a negative real return. Your wealth grows nominally, but shrinks in purchasing power. For entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals who are used to generating returns on their capital, that is an uncomfortable truth. Your money is not working for you—you are letting it sit. And letting it sit costs money.
On top of that, current price increases only make the picture more distorted. Groceries, energy, insurance, dining out: the day-to-day cost of living has risen sharply in recent years and continues to rise. Official inflation figures only partially capture this, because many of the price increases you feel as a wealthy individual—from hospitality to home maintenance—tend to run ahead of the statistics. This means the real erosion of your savings is likely greater than inflation figures suggest. Your savings account is not only failing to keep up with official currency depreciation, but even more so with the actual increase in your cost of living.
“As long as the interest on your savings account is lower than the actual currency devaluation, you lose purchasing power. Not in theory, but in practice. Every month, every year.”
Investor Relations Manager
“The alternative: wealth that grows along with you”
What if your wealth is not only protected against inflation, but actually benefits from it? The real estate asset class offers exactly that perspective. Lease agreements are generally indexed annually, meaning rental income moves in line with rising prices. On top of that comes the value development of the underlying real estate itself: land is scarce, the population is growing, and well-located commercial real estate in the Netherlands remains in demand. The result is an investment that works in two ways: direct income from rent and indirect capital appreciation over time.
That does not mean real estate is without risk. Tenants may leave, maintenance costs money, and markets are cyclical. But there is a fundamental difference compared to a savings account: real estate has a physical residual value. An office building or industrial unit is still there when the market turns against you. The land it stands on does not disappear. That cannot be said of many other asset classes, where in theory your investment can fall to zero.
Why a fund is the logical next step
You might think: why not just buy a property yourself? That is possible, but the barrier is high. A good commercial real estate asset easily costs several million euros. You are dependent on one or two tenants, you carry all management responsibilities yourself, and you lack the diversification that helps reduce risk. A real estate fund solves these problems. You enter as a co-owner of a broadly diversified portfolio, benefit from professional management, and gain access to assets that are out of reach for individual investors. The mid-cap segment in commercial real estate—properties between €10 and €50 million—is particularly interesting in this regard. Too large for private investors, too small for large institutional parties. It is precisely in this segment that the best opportunities arise, and this is where Benkey focuses its investors.
At Benkey, we invest exclusively in commercial real estate in the Netherlands. Our portfolio consists of office buildings, industrial properties, and retail assets with solid tenants and proven leasing potential. We combine stable rental income with active value creation through smart acquisitions and targeted optimisation. The return we aim for is substantially higher than what a savings account delivers, backed by a track record that supports this.
Your wealth deserves better.
The decision to leave your savings untouched is also a choice. A choice to give up a bit of purchasing power every year. For entrepreneurs who are used to making deliberate decisions about their capital, that is an unusual position. You did not build your wealth by standing still.
Curious how your wealth could work harder? Through the Benkey Portal, you can immediately explore the opportunities to invest in commercial real estate, and a projection tool is available to model your wealth growth over a 5-, 10-, or 15-year investment period. No obligations, just insight.
If you would like more information about the opportunities and risks of investing in commercial real estate, feel free to schedule a no-obligation appointment. Within 30 minutes, we will (digitally) bring you up to speed on the investment strategy and provide insight into the diversified portfolio and business plans of the properties. Benkey. Solid as a rock in wealth.
