Took ₹50L in 2023. The RM pushed 30 years with the classic line, ‘EMI will be comfortable sir’ (₹36.7k vs about ₹41.8k for 20 years). Saving ₹5k a month felt great at 28. I said yes in about four seconds.
Opened the full schedule this weekend, mostly out of boredom. Did not enjoy what I found.
30-year version: total interest about ₹82L on a ₹50L loan.
20-year version: total interest about ₹50L.
So that ₹5k/month of ‘comfort’ is a ₹31 lakh decision over the life of the loan. And the part that actually annoyed me: for the first several years almost the entire EMI is interest. three years in and my principal has barely moved.
Two questions for people who’ve been here:
- Is it worth formally switching to a shorter tenure now, or smarter to keep the long tenure and just prepay hard to fake the same outcome?
- Did anyone else genuinely not clock how front-loaded the interest is until they actually looked?