HR portal on my old job showed 40,012 in-hand some months and 39,400 in others. People still say my salary is 40,000. Fine. I use 40,000. The question they actually mean is, how big a loan can that month carry.
They dont mean CTC. CTC divided by 12 is a optimistic fairy tale. Banks look at slips and the credit bureau. So I open the Loan Eligibility Calculator and I put take-home, not the offer letter headline.
You will not get a sanction SMS from this page. You get a spare EMI and a rough eligible loan. That is enough to stop a stupid application.
Take-home goes in the first box, not CTC
Monthly take-home is 40000. I type 40000. If your average of last three slips is 38,500, type that. Honesty here saves a embarrassment later.
Existing EMIs is 0 if this is your first EMI. If you have a card EMI or a two-wheeler, put that number. I wrote a whole other post for that case, I already have an EMI, how much extra loan is safe. This one assumes a clean month first, then I dirty it a little below.
FOIR cap default on this site is 45. FOIR means how much of monthly income can go to EMIs. Banks have their own bands. 40 is conservative. 45 is the usual starting point I use for salaried. 50 is the stretch some people like and then they live tight.
Assumed interest rate is not eligibility magic, it converts spare EMI into a loan size. I use 9 for a home loan style check. I use 12 or 13 if I am thinking personal loan. Wrong rate, wrong principal.
Tenure here is years, not months. That is the opposite of the EMI page. 20 means 20 years. Put 240 and the number goes wild. I have done that once. Felt stupid.
Hit Calculate. Spare EMI (approx) is income times FOIR minus existing EMI. Rough eligible loan is what that spare EMI can support at your rate and years.
This is an estimate, not an official figure.
FOIR is the pie, 40k is the pie size
40,000 take-home.
At 40 percent FOIR, max EMI pot is ₹16,000. If existing is 0, spare EMI is ₹16,000.
At 45 percent, pot is ₹18,000. Spare ₹18,000.
At 50 percent, pot is ₹20,000. Spare ₹20,000.
That spare is not extra shopping money. That is the EMI the formula allows. Rent is often outside this simple FOIR. Some banks still mentally cut you if rent is huge. I keep rent in my own budget even if I leave Existing EMIs at 0.
Now convert spare into loan. I used Assumed interest rate 9 and Tenure 20 years.
Spare ₹16,000 supports about ₹17,78,319.
Spare ₹18,000 supports about ₹20,00,609.
Spare ₹20,000 supports about ₹22,22,899.
So a clean 40k salary at 45 percent and 9 percent for 20 years lands near 20 lakh. That is the number I tell cousins when they ask casually. I also tell them the bank can cut it for CIBIL, job type, or property papers.
If the rate is 8.5 percent, same 18,000 spare, loan about ₹20,74,155. A cheaper rate buys a bit more principal.
If the rate is 10 percent, same spare, loan about ₹18,65,243. Costlier rate, smaller loan. Same EMI pot.
If you drop Tenure to 15 years, 18,000 spare at 9 percent is about ₹17,74,681. Shorter loan, less principal for the same EMI. That is why officers push 20 or 25 when you want a bigger sanction.
25 years, same 18,000 and 9 percent, about ₹21,44,909. A bit more loan, a lot more years. See 20 year vs 15 year before you take years only to inflate eligibility.
Personal loan on 40k is a different rate box
If the dream is not a house but 2 or 3 lakh cash, dont use 9 percent and 20 years. That inflates eligibility like a balloon.
Put Assumed interest rate 13. Tenure 3 years. Existing 0. FOIR 45. Spare EMI still ₹18,000, but 3 years at 13 percent does not turn into 20 lakh. The tool will show a much smaller principal because 36 months cannot carry a huge loan even with 18,000 EMI.
I also ran a tighter story. Existing EMI 8,000, FOIR 45, rate 13, 3 years. Spare EMI ₹10,000. Rough loan about ₹2,96,789. That is a 3 lakh personal loan zone, and the month is already loud.
For the EMI of a 2 lakh personal loan itself, use the other page, personal loan of 2 lakh for 3 years. Eligibility says can you. EMI says what you pay. Different questions.
Home loan on 40k with a existing 6,000 EMI, FOIR 45, rate 10, 20 years. Spare ₹12,000. Loan about ₹12,43,495. That matches the example sitting on the tool page. Bank may still cut it.
I keep repeating bank may cut it because people treat this result like a promise. CIBIL 710 versus 790 is a different conversation. Contract job versus a old IT payroll is a different conversation. A property with messy papers is a different conversation. None of that is in these boxes.
What I would call a sane plan on 40k
I would not plan my life on 50 percent FOIR. 20,000 EMI on 40,000 leave 20,000 for rent, food, travel, parents, phone, everything. In a city that rent alone can be 12,000. Then you are living on 8,000. One hospital visit and the EMI bounces.
45 percent is the number I start with. 18,000 EMI. If rent is 10,000 I already dont like it. If you live with family and rent is 0, 18,000 is more possible. FOIR does not know your rent. You do.
40 percent if you want slack. 16,000 EMI, loan near 17.8 lakh at 9 percent 20 years. Less house, more sleep.
Joint application, add both take-homes in Monthly take-home. Only if the other person will actually sign. Dont type your wife's salary for fun. They will ask for her slips.
Bonus. I dont put yearly bonus into Monthly take-home. One good March does not pay 240 EMIs.
I also run the EMI page after this. Eligibility says 20 lakh. Then EMI Calculator with Loan amount 2000000, the real rate, Tenure 240, to see the monthly hit. Eligibility and EMI should talk to each other. If they dont, you typed years in the wrong place on one of them.
Why bank EMI and this calculator dont match is for the EMI side. Eligibility mismatch is usually FOIR, existing EMI they found on bureau, or they used a lower income than you feel you earn.
Fill it in this order on the site
Monthly take-home 40000, or your real average.
Existing EMIs 0, or the truth.
FOIR cap 45, then try 40 if you want a safer number.
Assumed interest rate 9 for home, 12 plus for personal.
Tenure in years. 20 or 15 or 3. Not 240.
Read Spare EMI first. Then Rough eligible loan.
If spare EMI already looks like it would choke the month, the loan size does not matter. You are full. Stop shopping for principal.
40,000 is a honest Indian salaried month. It can hold a careful home loan or a small personal loan. It cannot hold both plus a car plus a expensive society flat unless someone else is paying rent. This box will not moralise. It will just shrink the loan when you type the existing EMIs.
I still use it before I let a broker fill a form. Brokers like big eligibility. My month likes leftover cash. The calculator is the tie-break I can do at lunch.