Let's spend the majority of our time in this lesson talking about unanticipated inflation. Unanticipated inflation hurts savers and creditors because the money they lend out that gets paid back in cheaper dollars over time. On the other hand, unanticipated inflation helps borrowers and debtors because they borrow money at a fixed rate and pay it back in cheaper dollars over time. Here's another way to say this: unanticipated inflation redistributes wealth from savers to borrowers. When you're trying to determine who is hurt or helped by surprise inflation, you have to first determine if they are considered a saver or creditor (meaning that they loan out money) or are they are a borrower or debtor (meaning that they are borrowing money)